Exporting PMs

[EcuaMobi]

Hi,

Can an option to export private messages be added? I see there's a mod compatible with SMF 1.1.19: https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=845

This feature has been requested before [1], [2] but it seems it never got any response.

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

[PowerGlove]

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

This is being worked on.

In the meantime, maybe theymos can manually help you out (from the second topic you linked to):

I actually have code written for exporting PMs into an mbox file compatible with Thunderbird, but I haven't gotten around yet to figuring out how best to present this functionality to users. (It's unusual because it takes a bit of time to generate and the resulting file should maybe be encrypted.)

If any established members have a strong need for it, I can manually create an export for you. For example, if you have so many PMs that the PM page is slow to load for you, you can get a PM export from me and then use the "purge PMs" feature. I'll probably only do this one time per person...

[EcuaMobi]

In the meantime, maybe theymos can manually help you out (from the second topic you linked to):

I actually have code written for exporting PMs into an mbox file compatible with Thunderbird, but I haven't gotten around yet to figuring out how best to present this functionality to users. (It's unusual because it takes a bit of time to generate and the resulting file should maybe be encrypted.)

If any established members have a strong need for it, I can manually create an export for you. For example, if you have so many PMs that the PM page is slow to load for you, you can get a PM export from me and then use the "purge PMs" feature. I'll probably only do this one time per person...

Thanks. I missed his post. I'm pm'ing him

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Can an option to export private messages be added? I see there's a mod compatible with SMF 1.1.19: https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=845

This feature has been requested before [1], [2] but it seems it never got any response.

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

Please check some existing products from forum members
PM.json with a userscript.
LoyceV's PM Pubisher but if you care about privacy, it is not what you need.

[Vod]

Please check some existing products from forum members
Backup/Sort Private Messages/PM/DM
PM.json with a userscript.
LoyceV's PM Pubisher but if you care about privacy, it is not what you need.

Can you remove mine from your list please?  It never worked. 

[joker_josue]

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

This is being worked on.

In the meantime, maybe theymos can manually help you out (from the second topic you linked to):

I actually have code written for exporting PMs into an mbox file compatible with Thunderbird, but I haven't gotten around yet to figuring out how best to present this functionality to users. (It's unusual because it takes a bit of time to generate and the resulting file should maybe be encrypted.)

If any established members have a strong need for it, I can manually create an export for you. For example, if you have so many PMs that the PM page is slow to load for you, you can get a PM export from me and then use the "purge PMs" feature. I'll probably only do this one time per person...

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that possibility.

Not that I need it now, but perhaps it could come in handy. Here's the quote for future reference.

Thanks for sharing. 

[LoyceV]

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

Downloading all pages with PMs would be easy, just feed your browser cookie to wget and loop through the pages with a 1 second delay in between. Separating each PM would be more work, but you may not even need that if you can run a local search through the raw data.

[dkbit98]

Here is one easy workaround you can do, that is not real backup but it can work like that.
Just click on My Messages, or select messages you want to ''backup'', and than use PRINT option in your browser.
This will export whole content of your page in PDF format, and you can also edit some things later and convert it to other formats.

[brownn]

I have a lot of old PMs I need to go through to find specific information. A local copy would really help.

This is being worked on.

[/quote]

Approximately when we can expect it to online ?

[PowerGlove]

Approximately when we can expect it to online ?

Soon™

In all seriousness: I don't know... I'm working on it, theymos is working on it, each of us have different styles and different ideas about how it should even be approached, let alone how it should function.

It's not currently high on my to-do list, because:

(*) There's still some thinking that needs to happen around whether or not (and how) the exported data should be encrypted.

(*) There's still some thinking that needs to happen around whether or not (and how) the exported data should be signed.

(*) I recently bumped into a 2020 poll that asked "Do you want a utility to save all your PMs?", and of the 25 respondents, 11 said "Yes" and 14 said "No".

Like a lot of things that either theymos or I could do/add, writing the code is not the bottleneck. It's the thinking through of all the implications, and the careful weighing of all the different approaches that takes time.

I also think there's a good chance that few people will actually use this, which will leave the forum with most of its current and future data-safety burden, anyway. (And, ignoring both the issue of message-containing e-mailed PM notifications, which I think trades sender-privacy for receiver-convenience in a not-well-thought-out way, and the issue of Cloudflare's MITM, which I very much hope won't be something that the forum has to live with forever, I also feel like any data-unburdening that does result from this will come at the cost of that data being duplicated and spread around in ways that it mostly isn't right now.)

Finally, when I look at this whole problem through the lenses of the issues that underpin it (like improving PM search, and mitigating against data breaches), I have other ideas that I think would sum to something much more effective. (But, I think it's unlikely that those ideas will be pursued; I only mention them to help explain why it's difficult for me to prioritize this one: In general, the older I get, the more disinclined I am to work in directions that don't make sense to me.)

[Vod]

I also think there's a good chance that few people will actually use this

That's what I thought too.   The people who have a need for a local copy can figure out how to do it themselves.   I also believe you can ask an AI agent to parse through each page and store messages in whatever format you want. 

[LoyceV]

I also believe you can ask an AI agent to parse through each page

Sharing all your PMs with data hungry chatbot companies is terrible for privacy.

[Vod]

I also believe you can ask an AI agent to parse through each page

Sharing all your PMs with data hungry chatbot companies is terrible for privacy.

I was going to respond with my usual arsenal of "I've done nothing wrong, I don't need privacy" but while thinking about it last night that would be wrong.   My memory is getting poor as I age, and I have no idea if I ever sent somebody a password or code that they may still be using.    Probably better to err on the side of caution and not involve AI.

[dkbit98]

I am not saying exporting PMs is a bad idea, but I think developers should focus on other things now.
Like I said before, everyone knows how to click on Print button in their web browser and export any content in PDF file.

I also believe you can ask an AI agent to parse through each page and store messages in whatever format you want.  

This is a terrible advice  
But I guess people started sharing everything with AI so they thinks this is OK, until first leaks (or worse) start happening in public.

[Vod]

I am not saying exporting PMs is a bad idea, but I think developers should focus on other things now.
Like I said before, everyone knows how to click on Print button in their web browser and export any content in PDF file.

I also believe you can ask an AI agent to parse through each page and store messages in whatever format you want.  

This is a terrible advice  
But I guess people started sharing everything with AI so they thinks this is OK, until first leaks (or worse) start happening in public.

Yes, best not to involve AI in any personal information.  However, the AI tsunami is huge, and one either needs to learn to surf it or drown.