Why am I having to write emails in this microscopic text box? It’s really weird.
Michael
Completely agreed.
All NEW MESSAGE text boxes are minuscule.
And they got even smaller recently.
@mindy
Are there plans for improving the PM system?
Especially a SEARCH feature, so we can better navigate through all past discussions we’ve had with our supporters?
That would be super swell.
4 Likes
Why have a box at all? I’d prefer if it just linked to the communication thread of that patron on the messages page. It’s a suggestion I’ve made to their support even before this forum existed!
Small box problem has been reported here before as well:
Unfortunately, along with notifications page, these are areas on Patreon that seem to not get any love for years. They’d much rather be adding features than improving what’s there it seems…
1 Like
When I send a message to a user from their details page, the box that comes up is small. Really small, can’t see more than a few words and it can’t be expanded. Could this be made normal?
8 Likes
It’s really too small. I think that all the message system can be better.
3 Likes
Agreed - very annoying if you are sending an introductory email to a new patron, all the scrolling…
These days, I actually hit F12 to bring up developer tools, and then change the textarea so that it has:
rows=“20” cols=“100”
Not great to have to do this manually but way better than typing into the tiny box!
I sent a tweet too since that has been successful in the past lobbying for features:
1 Like
Hey everyone! I’m sorry, not sure how I missed this tag from @tracyscops earlier in the month.
I gotta admit, this does seem really small! I’ll mention this as one of my main pieces of feedback this week to see if I can see whether there’s any place for it in the Q3 roadmap.
@bjorn this is feedback we’ve heard before and agree we need to give some of our long standing features a bit of love.
2 Likes
I have a suggestion regarding the Patreon Message feature. While I love using Patreon Messages, it can be very frustrating sometimes.
There needs to be a way to search back through sent messages, without gaps of months and years when you scroll past the last 20 or so messages. I have found myself many times looking back over the Patreon messages only to encounter these gaps at random, where messages from 2015 are maintained and messages from 3 months prior, for example, have disappeared.
Either a search per by patron name or by date range would be very helpful and would fix this issue.
I send out my monthly rewards via Patreon message and it has worked well for me, except for when I need to look into the history of something, as in the case of refunds and sent rewards, etc.
Just a suggestion on something that I think would make the messaging feature a lot more useful.
8 Likes
1000 times this. Holy moly.
3 Likes
Just looked for a message today from the beginning of the month and I saw that I have from July 10 to current. Before that it is in June (only 6 days worth), then to April. What happened to May? Why can’t I see the messages from this month???
I don’t feel like this is a priority to many people, but I’m finding it quite inconvenient. I can search over the email notifications of comments, but they should be right there on Patreon.
I have not experienced messages actually disappearing, but this private messaging system has been begging for improvements for so long. Probably one is supposed to just use e-mail instead. See also:
2 Likes
Thanks for the thoughts everyone! This is great insight into how the messages feature could be improved. I’ll keep this thread open for any more feedback about messages and share it with the team this week during our product feedback meeting.
UPDATE 7/20: improving messages is something we know needs work. it’s a basic feature that allows you to communicate with your patrons, which is crucial in establishing that close bond with your community.
We’re currently scoping what improvements we can make, it would be GREAT if you could all continue to use this thread to leave all thoughts, suggestions, and feedback so we can hear from you as we plan. I’ll keep you posted as I know any more 
2 Likes
I wanted to boost this thread as this is something the product team are interested in learning more about, which is great! This is your chance to be heard, so please share:
- What you specifically dislike about messaging currently on Patreon?
- What function you’d ideally like?
- Anything else relating to messages on Patreon
Yay!! Improvements to messaging!
I dislike (as others have said): the tiny text box, the lack of search function (!!!), and the way a group message sorta stays in group form. For example, I send out a birthday reward to certain tiers, and I can’t collect that data automatically when people sign up. I had a large group all sign up at once, so I messaged everyone asking for their birthday. When each person responds, it’s still all within an umbrella of the initial message. Some patrons continue to use this thread for unrelated messages, making them difficult to find now. I hope that makes sense… it’s weird to explain.
What I’d like is an easier way to see ALL the communication I’ve had with any particular patron. I’d love to be able to see a patron on the Manager page, click them (or a link near them) and open our dialogue.
Thanks for considering an update!
1 Like
I’m VERY excited to say that the microscopic text box is NO MORE! This is now what it looks like:
Thank you for all the feedback around this! Your voice made this change possible 
5 Likes