Private messages on Flamenet go through FlameNet Messenger, and they are end-to-end encrypted by default.
Starting a conversation
- Go to /chatrooms/ (you must be signed in), or press Message on any member's profile.
- Pick someone from your conversations or your buddy list, or add a member by username.
- Type your message and press Enter.
Several conversations at once
Use + Open another above a conversation to open a second one alongside it. Up to six stay open as tabs in the same window, and a tab shows a count when someone is waiting on you.
Encryption
The bar above the message box tells you where a conversation stands. Encrypted means the message is sealed on your device and opened only on theirs — we relay a sealed envelope and hold no key that could open it, so we cannot read it and cannot produce it for anyone else. This is the default whenever you are both using a client that holds keys.
You can turn encryption off for a conversation with the button in that same bar. That is what makes searching your messages and seeing previews in the conversation list possible, because those need the words on the server. Turn it off and the messages are stored, encrypted at rest, with a key we hold.
Clearing a conversation
Press Clear on a conversation to remove your copy of it. The other person keeps theirs.
Privacy note: encrypted conversations are never written to our message table at all, and the sealed envelope is deleted a day after it is delivered. Conversations with encryption turned off are stored encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM; an administrator can decrypt one only to act on a verified abuse report, and every such access is logged. AIM and ICQ are a separate, older service — those messages have no encryption at any point and are readable by us. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail.