> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.groupflow.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Messaging & Forums > Read your group's announcements, chat with members in channels and direct messages, join forum discussions, and choose which emails you get Your group talks to you, and you talk to each other, in three separate places. **Announcements** are the group writing to everybody. **Messages** is live chat — channels around a subject, and direct messages to particular members. The **Discussion Forum** is for longer threads that stay put and get read days later. All three are for active members with an email address on their account. Where they appear in your group's menu is up to the organizers, so if you can't find one, the addresses below take you straight there. ## Announcements `/members/announcements` lists everything your group has published, newest first, each with its subject and when it went out: "Announcements and discussion topics are listed here." Open one to read it. Until there are any, the page says "**No announcements have been posted.** Check back later." Announcements also arrive by email. Which ones you get is yours to choose — see "Choosing which emails you get" below. ## Messages `/members/messages` is your group's chat. On a computer the conversations run down the left and the one you are reading fills the rest; on a phone you get the list, and opening a conversation replaces it. The list has two parts, headed **CHANNELS** and **DIRECT MESSAGES**. * **Channels** are conversations with a name, around a subject. You see the ones you belong to, and while you belong to none the list reads "You don't yet belong to any channels". With more than three, a line below them reads "2 more channels" and opens the rest; **Collapse** puts them back. * **Direct messages** are conversations with particular members. Each is named after the first other person in it, with the rest counted after it as "+2". A conversation with messages you haven't read carries a count. ### Starting a direct message Press the **+** beside **DIRECT MESSAGES**. Its tooltip reads **New message**. Type a name into **To** — the box reads **Search by name...** — and choose from the list. Add as many members as you want; the window keeps a count beneath, "3 recipients", and each has an **✕** to take them off again. **Start message...** opens the conversation. A direct message to several people is a conversation they can all see and reply to, not separate messages to each. ### Writing a message The box at the foot of a conversation reads **Type a message...** * **Enter** sends it, and **Shift+Enter** starts a new line instead. On a phone **Enter** gives you a new line, and the send button sends. * The photo button beside it — **Attach image** — adds an image. It appears below the box before you send, with an **✕** to drop it again. You can send an image on its own, with no text. ### Channels and conversations you are in The **⋮** menu at the top of a conversation — **Channel options** — holds **Silence notifications**, which asks how long for, and **Leave channel** or **Leave conversation**. Silencing is covered under "Following a topic, and quietening one" below; it works the same way here. **Members** at the top lists everyone in the conversation. A one-to-one direct message has no such list — there is only the two of you. Leaving a channel or a conversation is not something you can undo on your own. Somebody still in it has to put you back, and for a channel that means an organizer. ## The Discussion Forum `/members/forum` is the **Discussion Forum**: "Discussion topics are listed here.", newest activity first. Each topic shows its subject, how many messages it holds, and the photos of the members taking part with a count beside them. A topic you haven't opened yet is marked **NEW**, and a count beside it says how many messages in it you haven't read. Until there are any topics the page reads "There are no discussion topics yet. **Create one** now." ### Starting a topic **New Topic** opens a short form, and the page tells you what happens next: "Start your post here. After you're finished, press "+ Add Topic", and your post will be submitted to the moderators for approval." **Title** is required and takes up to 100 characters. The box suggests making it short and descriptive. **Start the discussion** is required and takes up to 10,000 characters: "Put the content of your post here. You can use Markdown to format your text." **+ Add Topic** submits it. A new topic waits for a moderator before anyone else can see it. Yours shows **Topic Pending Moderation** meanwhile — "Your topic has been submitted and is awaiting moderator approval. You will receive an email notification when your topic is approved. Thank you for your patience." If it isn't approved, the page reads **Topic Rejected**, "Your topic has been reviewed and was not approved for publication. Please contact a moderator if you have any questions." While a group has no published topic at all, the new-topic form offers help: a panel headed "This is your group's first post", with **Insert Template** to fill both fields with a welcome post and a set of community guidelines you can edit. Once a topic is published it stops being offered. ### Taking part in a topic Open a topic to read it and add to it. The box at the end reads **Write a message...**, with **Add image...** beside it for a picture and **Send** to post it. Every message after the opening post carries: * **Reply**, which answers that message rather than the topic and keeps the answers together under it. Replies go one level deep. The three most recent are shown under the message, and **View 4 more replies** opens the earlier ones. * **Like** on somebody else's message, which becomes **Unlike** once you have pressed it. The number beside a message opens the list of who liked it. * **Edit** on your own messages, and a bin button to delete one. The opening post has neither a reply nor a delete control; the discussion happens in the messages below it. ### Following a topic, and quietening one At the top of a topic sit two controls for how much it reaches you by email. The bell button reads **Notify me** — "Get notified when new comments are added". Press it and it becomes **Following** — "You are being notified of new comments. Click to stop." The **⋮** menu beside it holds **Silence Notifications**, which asks for how long: **1 hour**, **1 day**, **1 week**, **1 month** or **1 year**. "You won't receive notifications for this discussion for the selected duration." A silenced topic shows **Silenced** at the top, and the menu item becomes **Enable Notifications**. Two things turn a topic read-only. **Topic Archived** says so in a panel above the messages — "This topic has been archived. You can still view the messages but no new messages can be added." A **Paused** marker in the row of controls at the top means a moderator has stopped new messages for the time being; the ones already there stay readable. ## Choosing which emails you get **Notification preferences** — the **Notifications** section of your **Account** page, with **Manage** — opens **Email Notification Settings**, which decides what reaches your inbox: "Select what kinds of emails you would like to receive:". The ones to do with talking to each other sit under **Communications**: * **Group-wide announcements** * **Notification of a new chat message to you** * **Forum: Notification of new messages in forum topics you're following** Tick or clear each one and press **Save**. Which settings you are offered depends on your member status, so the list is not the same for everybody. The per-topic and per-conversation controls above sit on top of these: clearing the forum setting here stops every forum email, while **Silence Notifications** on one topic stops only that one. Dues, renewal, saved cards and closing your account. Your photo, your answers, and who can see them. Organizers write the announcements and moderate the forum: see [Communications](/guides/communications) and [Members](/guides/members). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.