Message any member, without going through the marketplace

Until now, messaging was mostly for contacting a seller from a marketplace listing. Handy, but limited: you couldn't write to a member whose style you admire just to say well done, ask for advice, arrange a swap, or find someone near you to puzzle with. That's changing today.

What changes

On every profile, you'll now find a Message button next to the Follow button. One click, and you start a direct conversation with that member, without needing a listing as a pretext.

No more waiting for a puzzle to go up for sale to reach out to someone whose builds inspire you. Want to ask where they found their sorting mat, how they managed to assemble that 9,000-piece puzzle, or simply congratulate them on their latest mosaic? It's now a click away.

For calmer exchanges

Opening messaging to everyone also means giving you the right tools should an exchange ever go off the rails. At any time you can report or block a member from their conversation, in two clicks. And a few discreet safeguards round it out, without ever blocking your messages.

Cues to get to know who you're talking to

To help you gauge at a glance who you're speaking with, the header of each conversation now shows a few useful cues.

• How long the member has been signed up, along the lines of "Member since April 2024".
• The ambassador badge, if they're active in the program.
• Their last visible activity, when the information is available.

It's what the best peer-to-peer platforms do, and it makes a big difference to the trust you place in a new contact.

All the everyday touches

Along the way, we took the opportunity to tighten up several details that make messaging comfortable.

• Your drafts are saved automatically, per conversation. You type a message, switch tabs, close the site, come back two days later: the text is still there, exactly where you left it.
• Switching from one conversation to another is faster and smoother. No more pages that freeze or need a refresh to show up.
• Unread-message indicators update instantly when you open a conversation, with no visible delay.

Nothing spectacular on its own, but together it means messaging is finally starting to feel like what you'd expect from real, modern messaging.

And next?

This opening is an important milestone: Puzzlovers becomes fully a community where exchanges can arise from something other than a transaction. Asking for advice, sharing a find, arranging a meetup, showing off a puzzle you've just finished: it all becomes possible in private messages.

More touches are coming in the weeks ahead. Your feedback, as always, is precious: the chat in the bottom right is there for that. Happy chatting.