In addition to what has been stated under the proposed solution above, scam/spam prevention could be achieved by implementing allow and block lists.
Btw, the nature of private messages is such that users themselves are responsible for moderating them, given the appropriate tools, so no additional labor on the part of Itch staff is needed, nor expected.
Private messages are not private in the sense that they only belong to you and the other person. They are private in the sense that they are not public (read: google will not index them). They are still moderatable and need to. If you get harrassed, how would you complain, if they have to keep private and no moderator could view them? Also, what I said, people do take screen shots or just repeat information you gave them there. PM is not private instant messenger system.
Did you see your proposed solutions anywhere on the net? (I am talking about a public website, not some system like discord). Also, did you see anyhwere a private message system that is disabled by default (or enabled, but can be disabled)? I am curious, how viable those solutions are. If they are, one would think, that they are used at some places.
And no, a block list will not prevent spam. Users would have to block each spammer after the fact. That is not prevention.
Itch is not an eco system designed for much online interactions between users. Look at steam for a counterexample. They even provide voice chat, friend lists and all those bells and whistles. Itch is a project hoster where you can comment on the stuff you downloaded.
While adding basically a "friend" system (allow list) and hence private messages might be desirable for some players, it would also increase maintenance. While itch is not really big, it ain't as small as a nieche interest public forum with 20 active members and half a moderator. (The public forum might look like it, but the overwhelming number of comments are on the project pages.)
Imho, itch is designed for publishers to interact with the players, not for the players to interact with each other. Whereas steam is designed for players to interact with each other and little ineraction between players and devlopers.
Also, what I said, people do take screen shots or just repeat information you gave them there.
Nothing can protect you from that, no service or technology, you wiilingly gave that info away. But are you telling me this is actually one of the reasons Itch won't implement the feature? If so, that would be a "reason" not to have any private messaging system, anywhere.
Did you see your proposed solutions anywhere on the net? (I am talking about a public website, not some system like discord). Also, did you see anyhwere a private message system that is disabled by default (or enabled, but can be disabled)? I am curious, how viable those solutions are. If they are, one would think, that they are used at some places.
Not very familiar with a lot of other services, but that takes nothing away from the potential viability of the propsed solutions. Don't see why PMs could not be disabled by default if that means they would be introduced to users who want to utilise them. Keep in mind, Itch is obviously not most of the platforms, otherwise this kind of feature request wouldn't be an issue.
And no, a block list will not prevent spam. Users would have to block each spammer after the fact. That is not prevention.
True, I should have worded that differently. I named the allow list first for that particular purpose. Block list would be a mitigation technique for users wanting to go the other route.
Imho, itch is designed for publishers to interact with the players, not for the players to interact with each other.
How about players interacting with the publishers non-publicly and publishers interacting among themselves, an example Dace posted in another comment?
