Messengers should codedly whisper messages

[Taunya]

I'd like to propose that the 'message' work like a coded whisper to the room. Those closer to the recipient being more likely to hear more of the message, and those further away being less likely to hear anything, just as with [w in an emote.

Despite it being policy that the room message should include the message for others to overhear, it almost never is. I think there's two main reasons.

First is that it's tedious to type out the message twice for both message and room messages. This would solve this.

Second, many people simply don't want the message overheard, even when it should be. I think that this should be an inherent risk to the system. Messages are generally spoken, and even if said quietly, someone with a sharp ear might catch some of it. More sensitive messages could still be passed by writing them down as a note, and use the messenger to deliver them. This could give pick-pockets something interesting to steal, as well, if the recipient forgets to consign them.

[Dreams]

Maybe I am being insensitive, but I feel like this is a lot of code change for being... nitpicky/nosey. Is it THAT important that messengers be overheard that it breaks into a separate thread to combat the one asking the quick messages to be more private for the sake of newbs?

Not only do languages not get into messengers unless we put the codes in ourselves, I feel there are much bigger things to worry about. Tracking, for example, etc.

And no, my messengers I send aren't super secret, so it isn't THAT. I just feel like making another thread for an ongoing conversation is kinda spoopy...

[Sparkles]

I use the 'room' portion of messengers to display things to people in the room even if it isn't reporting the entire message.

Further, distance as a factor only works if people actually begin to use room spacing, 95% of the time people don't move from the doorway. So that seems once again like a real easy "gottem" on newer players not aware of all the intricacies of our code.

Would this take into account people in join spots? Given the issues now with eavesdrop and join spots and other sneaky code, I feel like this has potential to spiral into a lot of code changes or fixes needed for little gain.

Why is there this big sudden drive about hearing people's messengers?

[Taunya]

Kitty: This is a separate idea from the other, and it was derailing the first's thread.

Sparkles: It isn't about you or any one person. But overall, messengers often aren't used as they're intended according to the helpfile. This would make it easier to do so by the messengers using whisper code just as it would work with two PCs in the same room. Newbies are actually often the ones who use it as intended (following how it says to use it in the helpfile, rather than how it's commonly used in practice), and such a change would benefit them as well, making their messengers less loud than present.

I wasn't thinking it would take join spots into account, no, other than coincidentally being at range 0 from the join spot since that's where the recipient would be at. A jmote would be louder than a whisper to others in the join spot besides.

Just another note, if you codedly step away far enough away from others to hear a whisper, it's very unlikely they would be able to make out any of the message. There might be one letter shown out of every five or ten.