Duane, markus,
In that case, a chat could work. If you have a record, I don't see
how it could be considered a Private Message though.
That pesky word "private" again.
Note that Deb, the OP, asked for an on-site means to _direct_ message from member to member - privacy was not mentioned, and in her follow up she said that idea behind the request was to have a record of the side conversation. So complete privacy is explicitly not desired in her use case.
In fact, given her goal none of the existing mechanisms are suitable - except maybe for chat. Direct emails are recorded nowhere except by the individuals involved, and the Private reply feature in Groups.io does not create a record of what was said.
Shal
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