Wikipedia:Emailing users

If you have received an abusive or objectionable email, please see Abuse below, or if necessary, the policy on dealing with harassment.

This is an information page. It is not a Wikipedia policy or guideline; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect varying levels of consensus.

Shortcut WP:EMAILWP:EMAIL

This page in a nutshell: The MediaWiki software has an opt-in option to send email between users. You do not have to reply to such emails and can disable the feature if desired.

This page sets out information on the Special:EmailUser feature, a MediaWiki feature that allows registered users to exchange emails with other registered users privately ("off-wiki").

Both the sender and recipient must have provided email addresses in their preferences. The sender's username and email address are disclosed but not their IP address. Note that replying "the wrong way" can disclose personal information—see Privacy issues below for how to avoid this if needed, when you reply)

Emails sent using Wikimedia's mail feature are private. Their contents cannot be read by administrators or anyone else, even to check for appropriateness. It is possible for users able to access the CheckUser tool to confirm if and when a user sent any emails, but not the content of the emails. In the event of abuse, threats, or harassment through email, users may contact any administrator for advice and assistance (by email or any other way, if they wish, in order to keep it private). In more serious cases they should email the Volunteer Response Team for help.

Users have the right to disable email on their account at any time (and can ask others to communicate on-wiki instead), although users active in roles that require email should consult appropriately first. Use of email can also be disabled by any administrator as part of blocking an account, although this is only done in case of (likely) abuse.

There are some important "best practices" – Wikipedia is designed to work based upon public dialog, so it is often better to communicate in public (on users' talk pages or elsewhere on Wikipedia's talk and project pages), where others can see. This is especially the case where improper use might later be claimed (canvassing, harassment and so on). Also, unlike messages on the website, messages via email are not subject to Wikipedia's free license and therefore are copyrighted by their sender, and should not be pasted onto the website in a way that breaches copyright law.

If you've added and confirmed an email address in your user preferences, you can exchange emails with other Wikipedia accounts using the Wikipedia interface. To send an email to another editor, simply visit your correspondent's user page, and click on the "Email this user" link that is located in the Tools menu on the right. This link is only present if the correspondent has enabled the "Allow other users to email me" option in their preferences. The email address that you've set and verified in your user preferences will be provided to the recipient so that they can reply to you directly via email.

Users who have disclosed their email addresses can be emailed directly. However, Wikipedia does not encourage such open disclosure. Emailing users through Wikipedia is a privacy feature that protects your email address from spam.

You can set your preferences so that you'll also receive a copy of every email you send; if you don't choose this option, this can still be done for individual emails. It may be useful at times to leave a brief message with a courtesy notification on the recipient's user talk page that you've emailed them, for transparency and because some users may not check their inbox regularly.

A link to the email feature can be created in text or a signature by typing [[Special:EmailUser/Username]].

Prohibiting email from specified users

If you have the email preference enabled, you can specify usernames which you do not want to be able to send you emails. These users will not see the "Email this user" link on your user page and will see a standard error message when using Special:EmailUser as if your entire email preference has been disabled.

Emails triggered by watchlist and notifications are not affected by this preference.

No formal community consensus exists on whether posting private off-wiki correspondence on Wikipedia is allowed or restricted. However, it is often considered to be an unacceptable action for legal reasons. Unlike edits and posts to Wikipedia's web pages, emails that are sent through the email facility are not automatically "freely" licensed by the sender, and therefore, reposting the messages or correspondence to a public Wikipedia location would suggest or imply to any and all readers that the text is freely licensed for reuse and republication by its author, which is generally not the case.

Editors who are considering reposting private communication publicly are advised to take extreme caution. Depending on the situation, editors can ask for permission from the sender or ask trusted editors for advice first. Note that the copyright concern only applies to reposting on Wikipedia and its sister projects – other forms of quoting which do not involve risk of copyright breach (such as forwarding to an administrator for advice, or quoting words or brief phrases in a way that constitutes Fair Use) are generally unaffected by this concern.

Sending an email via the Special:EmailUser system will disclose your email address for the purposes of a reply, but no other information will be provided to the recipient.

If you receive an email via this feature, it is important to know that you are not obligated in any way to reply or respond to the message. If you do wish to respond, you may do so in three ways:

• By replying with your email client:
  This will disclose whatever information your emails usually contain, including your email address. It may contain your IP address, or a signature line, or time zone, or the like.
• By visiting the user page of the sender, and using the "Email this user" feature:
  This will disclose nothing except your email address. You can do this by visiting the sender's user page, then selecting "Email this user" from the tool menu on the right of the page.
• By replying to their message on Wikipedia (usually on the editor's user talk page):
  In some cases, you may wish to leave a note on their talk page, for example, to inform them that their email was received, or to provide a brief response there. Since email is typically used to facilitate private communication or to discuss confidential matters, it is often courteous to keep such replies on Wikipedia brief and without disclosing private details or breaching any level of privacy or confidentiality, since the sender will usually expect such details to be communicated back to them using private channels.

If you receive an objectionable email through this system, you should contact an administrator, possibly by email, to ask advice. In serious cases you may wish to escalate the matter, especially if there is a pattern of harassment involved. Please note the following:

• Do not post the email on-wiki without permission
  You should not post the email itself on the wiki without permission (although you can describe briefly in summary what it contains or shows). This is partly due to copyright concerns, given that Wikipedia pages can be re-used by anyone. For information on posting emails on Wikipedia in general, see WP:POSTEMAIL.
• You can prevent specific users from emailing you
  See Prohibiting email from specified users for instructions.
• Email can be disabled at any time
  See Enabling and disabling user email for instructions.
• Retain objectionable emails in case they are needed
  You may need to refer to them again.
• The authenticity of emails can be verified
  Using the Wiki Mail Verify tool the authenticity of emails sent through this system can be verified by anyone provided the email is saved raw and in full.
• Do not disclose any personal information disallowed on Wikipedia
  Posting real names or email addresses not previously and voluntarily disclosed on Wikipedia can be considered outing. Such information may be communicated privately to the Arbitration Committee.

The email feature is intended to support the goal of building an encyclopedia and other WMF projects. Any widespread use of email for other reasons is considered abuse. Please note that the WMF Terms of Use prohibit transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.

• Wikipedia pages related to email functionality
  • Template:Email user
  • MediaWiki:Emailuserfooter - the footer that is added to all emails from this site
  • {{MediaWiki messages}} - lists some key MediaWiki system messages relating to email
• WP:POSTEMAIL, policy discussing the issue of posting emails and other private correspondence on Wikipedia, particularly:
  • A 2007 ArbCom decision on private correspondence
  • Private correspondence, a proposal rejected by the community in 2008
  • Wikipedia:Correspondence off-wiki, another proposal rejected in 2008