 | If you have received an abusive or objectionable email, please seeAbuse below, or if necessary, thepolicy on dealing with harassment. |
 | This is aninformation page. It is not anencyclopedic article, nor one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels ofconsensus andvetting. |
 | This page in a nutshell: TheMediaWiki 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 theSpecial:EmailUser feature, aMediaWiki feature that allows registered users to exchangeemails with other registered users privately ("off-wiki").
Users can send emails to other users via the built-in email facility on Wikipedia and any of its sister websites. Both the sender and recipient must have provided email addresses intheir preferences. The sender's username and email address are disclosed but not their IP address.(Note thatreplying "the wrong way"can disclose personal information—seePrivacy issues below for how to avoid this if needed, when you reply).
Emails sent using Wikimedia's mail facility are private. Their contents cannot be read by administrators or anyone else, even to check for appropriateness, so only limited help is possible if the feature is being abused. It is possible for users able to access theCheckUser tool to confirm if and when a user sent any emails, but not the content of the emails. In the event ofabuse, threats, or harassment through this facility, users may contact anyadministrator 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 theVolunteer Response Team for help.
Users have the right to disable the email facility on their accountat any time (and can ask users who email them to communicate on-wiki instead), although users active in roles that require accepting of user email should probably consult appropriately first (on or off wiki). Use of the email facility can also be disabled by any administrator as part ofblocking an account, although usually this is only done if the blocked user has abused or is likely to abuse the email facility.
There are some important "best practices" about this facility – Wikipedia is designed to work based upon public dialog, so communication between users is often better if it's in public (on users'talk pages or elsewhere on Wikipedia'stalk and project pages), where others can review and note them. This is especially the case where improper use might later be claimed (canvassing,harassment and so on); this would not be possible to claim if the posts are on the website itself. Also, unlike messages on the website, messages via email are not subject to Wikipedia'sfree license and therefore are copyrighted by their sender, andshould not be pasted onto the website in a way that breachescopyright law.
If you've added and confirmed an email address in youruser preferences, you can exchangeemails with other Wikipedia accounts using the Wikipedia interface. To send an email to another Wikipedia account, simply visit your correspondent'suser page, and click on the "Email this user" link that is located in the "toolbox" on the left-side navigation menu. This link is only present if the correspondent has enabled the "Allow other users to email me" option in their user preferences. The email address that you've set and verified inyour user preferences will be provided to the recipient so that they can respond to you directly. It will appear in the "From" address of the email they receive, so that the recipient can easily respond just by clicking "reply".
Users who have openly disclosed their email addresses can be emailed directly. However, Wikipediadoes not encourage such open disclosure. Emailing users through Wikipedia is a privacy feature that protects your email address fromspam.
Wikipedia emails are sent immediately when you click on "send". 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'suser talk page that you've emailed them, as 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]].
Email is disabled unless you specify and verify an email address with your account. This can be done while you are setting up your account for the first time, or at any time by adding one toyour user preferences. Your preferences can be accessed from the top-right corner of any page on Wikipedia while you're logged into your account. If you are enabling the ability to send emails to other users, MediaWiki requires you to verify that the email address you provide actually belongs to you. It will do this by sending a confirmation email to the address that you provided. Simply access your email's inbox, open the confirmation message, and click on the link that is provided in the message. The link will navigate you to the Wikipedia site, which will mark your email address as 'confirmed' and inform you of the successful completion of the process. The confirmation link will expire seven days from the time that it was generated and sent to you. If you don't click on the link within that time, you will need to have another one resent. SeeHelp:Email confirmation for help and additional information.
Once you have confirmed an email address to your Wikipedia account, you may enable or disable the email ability by visiting "my preferences", and by ticking or un-ticking the "Allow other users to email me" option. You can also prevent users without theautoconfirmed permissions level from emailing you by un-ticking the "Allow emails from brand-new users" option.
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.
There is no formal consensus by the community regarding the act of reposting private off-wiki correspondence onto public Wikipedia locations, or the restriction or prohibition of the exercise thereof. 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.
Users who feel that they are allowed to repost text from an email or other off-wiki source, or that doing so is necessary or the right to do so given a certain situation, discussion, report, or event, are advised to takeextreme caution, and to consult with other trusted and experienced users before doing so, in order to ensure that the act will not accidentally create a problem for themselves, or create a negative perception or result in negative consequences. This might involve consulting, or asking the sender if they will allow the email to be quoted under Wikipedia's license in a post on Wikipedia's discussion pages. Note that this 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 the text to an administrator for advice, or quoting words or brief phrases in a way that constitutesFair Use) are generally unaffected by this concern.
Sending an email via theSpecial:EmailUser system will disclose your email address for the purposes of a reply, but no other information will be provided by the system to the recipient. (Note that emails sent this way are private – they are sent as written, as a private communication between willing parties who have agreed to send and receive emails.)
If you receive an email via this feature, it is important to know thatyou are not obligated in any way to reply or respond to the message. If you do wish to respond to the user, you may do so in three ways:
If you receive an objectionable email through this system, you should contact anadministrator, possibly by email, to ask advice. In serious cases you may wish to escalate the matter, especially if there is a pattern ofharassment involved. Please note the following:
The email facility described here is intended to support the goal of building an encyclopedia and other WMF projects. Any widespread use of this facility for other reasons is considered abuse. Please note that theWMF Terms of Use prohibittransmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users
.