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Send PMs to user ID rather than username

TH Thorsten
Thorsten
Member
Member since Apr 2012
204 posts
Oct 16, 2013 · 5:21 am · Edited

Students on our e-course site very much enjoy S:P’s PM plugin and make good use of it. One thing that concerns me a bit is that PMs are triggered by usernames, which are revealed in the browser bar. Our site is member’s only so the concern isn’t that dramatic, but still.

Now, we also use a plugin called User Profiles Made Easy (http://codecanyon.net/item/user-profiles-made-easy-wordpress-plugin/4109874) to provide students with a front-end profile editing option (which works in tandem with S:P profiles). This plugin pulls users by ID rather than username, e.g. http://xxxxx.com/profile/?viewuser=4615, which is WP’s user ID. This got me wondering if the PM plugin could perhaps do something similar? Just curious.

2 Answers

New Answer
MP Mr Papa
Mr Papa
Member
Member since Dec 2006
19,448 posts
Oct 16, 2013 · 10:31 am

as the pm plugin is currently written, its not possible…  we would have to rewrite permalink structure for pms and change the template functions to use it…

we cant win here..  we used to do it with userid, but many folks didnt like it…  was ugly, insecure, etc, etc…  hiding the user id or the username isnt security, its obfuscation…

TH Thorsten
Thorsten
Member
Member since Apr 2012
204 posts
Oct 16, 2013 · 11:20 am

As said, just curious. Since our site is members only the concern is marginal, at best it might raise some eyebrows concerning some of the usernames.. Thank you for the feedback.