ArtSites Updates

We have created a new area in the ArtSites Administration system for managing incoming messages from the Contact and Inquiry pages of your website. Instead of emailing the messages directly to you, these messages will be put into a new Messages section of your website where you can view the messages in your Admin Panel.  Over time, we will migrate other messaging into this system, as well.

We have made this change for a number of reasons.  It has become increasingly hard to reach some of the artists due to spam filtering and changes of email. Now, you will always be able to see your incoming messages from your Admin Panel on your website. That said, please note we will still send you a notification of new messages via email.

You can find your Messages page by going to the Contact page in your Admin Panel and clicking on the Inquiries and Contact Requests link just below the Manage Contact Information Page title.

Our new Messaging system displays 4 kinds of messages:

  New Messages

This will show messages that haven't been marked as Archived, Spam or Deleted. This is where you can look for messages associated with notices you've received via email. 

You can review the messages and when you are done with them, mark them as Archived.  That way, the New Messages section will only show you messages you haven't dealt with yet.

Each message displays the Name and email address (if provided) of the sender as well as the text of the message. If the message is more than a single line long, only the first line is displayed but if you click on that line, the whole message will be displayed.  Clicking on   reply or the commenter's email address will attempt to open your email program so that you can reply to the message. If this feature hasn't been set up in your web browser you will likely just get an error message.

  Archived Messages

If you click on the Archive icon  , your message will be put on this list. It is just a way to keep your messages out of the New Messages list. But, you can still access them at a later time if you want to look at or review them. You can always click on the Unarchive icon if you would like to move the message back into the New Messages list.

  Spam Messages

If you click on the Spam icon   on a message in the New Messages list, it will be put into the Spam Messages list. Not only will it be removed from your New Messages list but will notify us of the spam message so we can take action to suppress the spammer across our network of artists. At times, we will identify a message as spam before you get a chance to see it in your New Messages list. So, some messages may automatically end up in your Spam Messages list.

Not all potential spam will end up in the Spam Messages list. For years, we have been blocking spammers so that most spammers either cannot get access to your website at all or are not allowed to send to your website. In the process of sending a message, the behavior of the sender provides us foolproof evidence that the message is spam is and we will put it in the Spam Messages list. In the past, those messages were just discarded. When we mark a message as spam, we are pretty sure that it's spam so you can safely ignore this section but if you are curious about what spammers might be attempting to send you, have a look.

  Deleted Messages

We are not sure that this list of messages is even needed but we know that some people really like to delete messages at some point. We may at some point turn deleting messages into an irreversible deletion from our database.

Currently, all messages will stay in our database indefinitely. At some point we make start purging Spam and Delete messages after some period of time, e.g., maybe after they are more than a month old.

This is a new system and it represents a significant change in how we handle communications between an artist and their visitors.

It is possible that you do not have any messages to view yet so to test this new feature, go to your public Contact page and send yourself a message, then go back into the Messages view and see what it looks like.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback on how the system works for you! And, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to let us know!