Write a message
The window for writing an internal message. It serves just as well to write to somebody as to reply, reply to all or forward — it is the context of opening that changes, not the window.
The receivers
The first field accepts several, separated by a semicolon. The nickname has to be exact: if it cannot be found, the message is not sent and the window tells you which one is the problem.
On the right, an Add list saves you from typing them:
- My clan addresses the message to every member of your clan, yourself excepted. The name of your clan then appears in the field.
- then each of your friends, one by one. That is the main use of the friends list: see Add a friend.
Two particular cases. One cannot write to oneself. And to reach the game's team, the receiver is sulkyland or webmaster.
The non-subscribers' quota
A player without a subscription cannot send more than ten messages per 24 hours, and it is the number of receivers that counts, not the number of sendings.
The consequence is surprising when one discovers it: writing to a clan of twelve members consumes twelve messages at a stroke, and the sending is refused entirely if the count goes over. The reckoning bears on the last twenty-four rolling hours and adds up your Sent, Archived and Trash folders — but it ignores the automatic messages, which cost you nothing.
Subscribers and moderators are not limited.
The title and the message
The title accepts fifty characters. On replying, the game takes it up and adds Re: to it — once only, even after ten exchanges.
The message is plain text: no formatting, no editor. One exception only: the address of a card obtained by the Share button — horse, race, clan, member — becomes a link at your receiver's end, which opens the card in one click. Any other address stays as text. See Share a card.
The history underneath
Under the form, the window recalls the earlier messages of the exchange — sender, receiver, date and text, from the most recent to the oldest. You have nothing to copy out: that history goes with your reply, and your correspondent will see the whole conversation.
It is handy and it is also a trap: forwarding a message passes on the whole exchange that precedes it. Read the history over before forwarding to a third party.
If the sending is refused
Three possible reasons, and the window names them: a nickname not found, no valid receiver, or your quota reached. A player barred from communicating by the moderation cannot send anything until their sanction runs out.
Once sent
The message goes immediately and a copy is filed in your Sent, where it is kept one month. At your receiver's end, it lasts six months. See My messages.
If you manage somebody else's account, your message says so: the receiver reads that it was written by a co-manager, and by whom. See co-management.