Oh Houzz. Can it get any worse?

You can only message someone if they allow it purposefully.

The messaging tab is always an optional feature and has to be intentionally activated by the account holder/member. If they have not activated it - tab is missing - then you cannot contact them via that method. I don't think there are any work-arounds........

So I guess it's on their end, then not a goofball site issue.

I believe it is on their end. I just checked on someone I message back and forth with that I know has their messaging on. It is not showing for them now.

If you check mine it should show messaging enabled but it does not right now.

Neither does mine. I tried allowing messaging again but it still doesn’t show up.

tj

I tapped peren's profile (we've msgd) and sure enough no msg tab..so mxk3 it does seem to be a "goofball site issue"..

I think it's always been that way and that it was a basically sound design choice. Not everyone wants to be contacted on 'social media'. (increasingly ought to be called 'antisocial media'!) That being said, IIRC, the default settings need to be more obvious but it's been ages since I've looked at them and I'm not going to go check them now.

I posted this issue in the “Using Houzz” Forum.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/tag=517

It may take a bit to show up as it has to pass their vetting process.

tj

In your settings you can choose whether you will allow messaging. I have always chosen mine and I remember the message button used to show up on my profile page and I saw it on other users pages. But now I don't see any message buttons, not on mine and not on those I've checked. I already allow messaging and I checked it again this week, just to be sure, so it's not my choice not to receive messages, it's Houzz again.

...and I looked for my old messages that I received and they are gone.

tj

The message box is back up for everyone I checked.

Hmmm.... I just looked on my page and I still don't see a message button, and I thought when you select 'view your public profile' it should show you what your page looks like to everyone else. Maybe not. Maybe it's showing up to others?

Peren.all it does show up on your page.

tsugajunkie - there is a selection under messages, labeled 'old inbox'. That is probably where your old messages are. Mine are there.

Yes, the old messages box is there now. It wasn’t there yesterday. I’m still not seeing anyone’s message box including peren’s. Hopefully they are chipping away at this.

tj

Need I say more

Other than laceyvail, everyone posting here on this thread currently has a messaging tab showing.

Whatever the problem was, it must be fixed. (btw, I tested it out yesterday without the tab showing and it still worked for those who I've exchanged messaging with previously).

Gal-if you sent one to me I didn’t get it. In either my old or new messages all that’s there are the messages we exchanged back in June. Just in case I checked my email and nothing from Houzz there either.

tj

I didn't try everyone that I have exchanged messaging with.....I just wanted to see if the feature still worked even without the tab. And apparently it does.

But I did just message you tj, so check your inbox :-)

Well it worked. Thanks. Showed up in the old inbox as opposed to new messages. Still not seeing any message box for anyone nor for myself.

tj

BTW Gal, I replied to your message... did it show up in new messages or old inbox?

tj

Got it!! Glad I wasn't a liar :-) And it showed up where my messages always do - under notifications and in my email. IDK what/where the 'new messages' thingy is.

If you look at mad-Galicia’s pic above there is a box See New Messages. Mine shows a pull down menu for that or old inbox.

ETA-if your screen is the same as it always was then they may be converting folks a group at a time.

tj

Interesting, I started out typing in Gardenweb dot com. Hit the Your Houzz button. Stayed Gardenweb. Hit messages on my page and it switched to Houzz. That's one ongoing issue, that I am ignoring.

Then I see the new graphic under messages, like you see in MadGallica's post, and I click on See New Messages. And it brings me to an 'Inbox' that says no messages. It took me off the message page that had my 'old inbox' with all my old messages in it.

And that graphic, claims that this is a new messaging system that works seamlessly and allows you to send photos and attachments. Well, first of all even the page for messages is dysfunctional just for starters. Then I did send two messages to people on this thread just to let them know their button is working and I see nothing different about the message window then before. No link to allow for attachments or photos. This kind of stuff drives me crazy. If they wanted to introduce a new messaging system, do it right. Be professional. Add it when it is finished being designed and tested to be working right. It makes it so far from seamless it isn't funny.

And btw, I was using messages before this and it was working just fine. I didn't like the design, I didn't like not being able to add a photo to the message, but not enough to complain about it. And at least the format was functional.

I have nothing like that showing. In fact, other than the messaging tab disappearing for a short period yesterday, nothing has changed for me at all. But I am only on GardenWeb, never Houzz, and I never sign out. I rarely encounter any site issues.

I start out on garden web and I stay signed in, but it redirects me to Houzz a lot. And if I use the notification, it redirects me to Houzz. If I respond to a notification email, it redirects me to Houzz. I see I am on Houzz right now, because I clicked on a notification.

I too am always signed in on Gardenweb but I am mainly on an iPhone but the message part only changed in the last week or so....may have to drag out the laptop to see what it looks like.

tj

Oh brother, and now they have changed the notification window. I see there is a notification there, I click on the bell, now I am in a two sided window. On the left is notifications, on the right are messages. It opens to messages every time. I get notifications for activity on threads I am following probably 50 to 1, yet now I will have to keep clicking on notifications to get to them and get off the messages section. And they have done away with the 'Mark All Read' button that I use a lot. Nowhere to be found.

Interesting, I wondered, since I am on Houzz, what if I switched back to Gardenweb. Sure enough, under Gardenweb, is the old notification window with the 'Mark as All Read' button.

Omgosh, I just got a message from someone on this thread, I saw an email notification pop up from my mail program to alert me to this email about the message. I go to the notification button that then had the number 1 on it. I open it, it opens to messages, it's empty. Instead it shows the number 1 on the notification side. I click on notifications and there is the notice that I have a message...! lol.

Okay, before I drive myself completely crazy, I am going to have to give up on Gardenweb for the day. :-)

LOL ok I need to back up. I haven’t used the notifications button in ages, I use the messages button which will switch to Houzz but using back arrows gets me back on gardenweb.

So Gal, what do you see if you hit the messages box on your home page?

tj

All my old messages in reverse chronological order.....just like forever :-) tbh, this - the messages tab - is not a place I visit much. Aside from recent (yesterday and today) visits to test if the messaging feature was still working without a visible message tab, I can't remember when I last accessed this feature on my homepage. I just rely on my notifications and/or email inbox.

OK thanks.

tj

I'm signed in under GW, and I stay under GW unless I go into the Your Houzz section -- then I get bumped to Houzz. I am getting the old inbox and new msg screen too -- but at least it's working so there's that.

Hi Joe, as we've all done, this thread was from last year.

But since the subject has come up. I avoid messaging like the plague. They took a perfectly useable feature on this site and ruined it to the point it is unuseable in my opinion. You can message someone if you are desperate. I've done that once in the past 6 months. they did recieve it, but producing a message is not all that straight forward. And the way they group all your messages, without even a 'sent' section. Everything all together. I have no time for so many things, the last thing I am going to waste time on is finding a message in this system. If I can't easily access messages I've sent and received, then I want to avoid the entire mess. And I don't bother complaining to Houzz, because they have never to my knowlege changed or fixed anything that anyone ever complains about.

Like any of the glitches that appear here from time to time, they seem to be directly related to the choice of browsers and devices and are rarely, ever site-wide.

I have NO issues with the messaging feature and mine gets used often, generally from others contacting me. I have no difficulties finding old messages or ones that I've sent and get notifications of new messages both with the onsite notification feature and by email.

The only complaint I have about messaging is the need to type your message in the tiny little box they provide and the lack of ability to customize the text or attach photos. Otherwise, it works perfectly well for me. For ongoing PM's, I prefer to switch to email.

I only use my laptop with Opera browser and am permanently signed into the site on the GardenWeb side of the platform. YMMV

@ GGal - I use an Apple computer with an Apple browser. To me that is a mainstream computer and browser system, that any reasonably professional website should be capable of working with.

As for the messaging system, I'm curious if you noticed the change they made to the messaging system? It used to have an entirely different format and was organized well and functioned well. Whether you always get notification or not aside. It wasn't that long ago that it entirely changed for me. Are you saying it didn't change and it's only the way my browser presents it?