What is the Message Centre and how do I use it?

Simply put, your Message Centre is a "Super Information Highway". You can read comments left on your userpage or artwork, see the latest deviations, polls, news posts and journals from friends, receive replies from others and reply to comments from others. You can also receive important community updates or view the latest deviantART hosted contests as they are freshly posted! Your Message Centre is divided in to two tabs, Messages and Deviations. Later in this entry you will find a breakdown of these two sections and all that you can control under them.

Situated at the top of the page, just above the deviantART header is a message notification bar. When you get a message this will change to, for example:

Admin $hexentanz | Subscribed | 1 Deviation, 7 Messages, 1 Note | Logout.

Clicking on the deviation link will take you to your deviations section, while clicking on the messages section will bring you to the main message centre and clicking on the Notes will take you to your notes.

Messages

   Inbox

    All

• All - Under this section you can see an overview of all of your message types, be it deviations, journals, comments, polls, etc.

    Notices

• Notices - These are important community updates, usually these will be new feature announcements or Community Operation Newsletters.

    Contests

• Contests - This section will notify you about any new Official deviantART contests.

    deviantWATCH

• Deviations - Here you will be able to view deviations from anyone you have opted to receive updates from, be it new deviations or deviation updates.



• Critiques - Here you will be notified of any critiques that your friends leave for other members.



• Journals - If you have selected to be notified of journal updates your friends make, you will be notified here.



• News - If your friends have posted a news article, you wll be notified of such provided you have opted to receive such notifications from them.



• Polls - If your friends make any new polls, these notifications will appear in this section for those you have opted to receive poll updates from.




Additional Information - There is a limitation of 10,000 messages within each 'folder type'. For more information, please refer to FAQ entries below:

FAQ #71: How long do messages stay in my message center?
FAQ #87: Is there a limit on how many messages I can have?

    Feedback

• Critiques - If a user has posted a critique on one of your deviations you will be notified here. You will need to mark the critique as fair or unfair. If someone accepts one of your critiques you will also receive a message here.



• Comments - If a user has posted a comment on your deviation,journal, forum post or userpage, you will be notified here.



• Replies - If you receive a reply to a comment you have made on the site, be it a deviation or forum posting, you will receive notification of any replies here.



• Activity - This section allows you to see when someone has added a deviation of yours to their favourites or collection. You will also be notified here when someone adds you to their deviantWATCH.




Additional Information - There is a limitation of 10,000 messages within each 'folder type'. For more information, please refer to FAQ entries below:

FAQ #71: How long do messages stay in my message center?
FAQ #87: Is there a limit on how many messages I can have?

    Unread Notes

• Unread Notes - In this section you will be able to view any unread notes you have.


Additional Information - There is a limitation of 10,000 messages within each 'folder type'. For more information, please refer to FAQ entries below:

FAQ #71: How long do messages stay in my message center?
FAQ #87: Is there a limit on how many messages I can have?

   Folders

• Folders - Here you will be able to create folders to drag and drop any messages that you wish to save. To create a a folder simply click on 'New Folder' and give it a name, you can then drag and drop items to it to be saved. To remove a folder you will need to click on the folder name that you wish to delete and you will then be presented with the option to do so.
  
  Note: Messages will expire after one year unless placed in a custom folder, for more information, please refer to FAQ #71: How long do messages stay in my message center?

Notes

    Notes

• About Notes - Under your notes tab you can view a full listing of your notes. You will be able to note people through this section, delete notes and even organize your notes in to folders.



• Deleting Notes - You can delete notes while under your notes tab, either by checking the box next to note or notes you wish to delete and then clicking on the button entitled 'Delete Selected'. If you have a large group of notes, you will also notice another button entitled 'Select All', by pressing this button you will automatically select all notes for deletion. You can complete this task by clicking on "Delete Selected".
  
  Please note, once notes are deleted they are non-recoverable.



• Creating Folders - You can create notes for your folders by clicking "Manage Folders" while in your notes section, once there simply choose a name for your folder and click Submit. You can also make this folder a sub folder of another, which basically means, placing the new folder inside the Inbox, or any other available by choosing a folder name from the drop down menu.
  
  To move notes to a folder you have created you will need to select the notes you wish to move from the main notes page and then choose the folder to move them to from the drop down box, located next to the 'Move selected to' button. Follow up by clicking on this button to move your notes.

Additional Information - You can send notes to multiple recipients if you wish to do so, to do this you will need to separate the individual names with a comma. For example: hexentanz,ewm,lolly would send a note to hexentanz,ewm and lolly. If you have organized your deviantWATCH list into specific groups, then you can mass note all the members of the said group, by selecting the group name from the drop down menu. Be aware however that the field for adding recipients is limited to 255 characters.

You may also add a deviation or print thumbnail to your notes. To display a deviation, you will need to use the :thumb#: notation, where # is the number of the deviation in which you wish to display. To display a print thumbnail, you will need to use the :shop#: notation, where # is the number of the print in which you wish to display.

For instance, if you view a print you will notice a number at the end of the URL, for example http://www.deviantart.com/print/104506/. To display this print in thumb form you would simply type :shop104506: and if you are viewing a deviation http://hexentanz.deviantart.com/art/Trachycephalus-Resinifictrix-97487847 you would simply type :thumb97487847:

Please be advised, thumbnails will not display while previewing a note, but will display fine once sent.