What is the difference between an instant message and a discussion message?

Although both intended for conversational, shorter-term information, instant messages and discussion messages have considerable differences.

  • Instant messages appear on the talk page for a group - and in every browser that has that page open - as soon as the user enters a message and presses return. Unlike discussion messages there is no workflow.
  • Instant messages are just an unbroken line of text with no special formatting. (You can still use *bold* and /italics/ by styling them like this and reference knowledge entries using wiki links.)
  • Instant messages only appear on the website. Discussion messages are also sent out by email to those members of the group who want email.
  • You can share files, but each will effectively be its own message. With discussion messages a message can have several attached files.
Written by Stephen Hebditch. Published on .
Instant messages, Discussion messages, Email, Groups, Users
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The main differences between instant messages and discussion messages.