Just want to give the heads up that if you reply back to a shop owner via a system generated notification (email) you’ve received then your response will be read on the Folksy thread it originated from.
If you want to reply to the said shop owner privately then you should compose a separate email to an address of their choosing.
Thanks 
Susan I believe everyone already knows that. It is standard forum notification. Been on this forum since 2014 and issue had not been raised before .
The easy solution is to remove the notifications and just visit the forum to see if there are replies.
Sorry I’m a tad confused. If you click on someone’s name you get the box below with the word message, if you click on that you send a private message to that person don’t you? It doesn’t appear on a forum?
If you click on this reply button yes it does appear on the forum. Am I being stupid, it has been known!
To clarify.
Messaging between sellers.
Hit the sellers contact button and send them a message. It will go via the Folksy system but they can reply directly to you, privately, using their and your private email addresses and the normal email systems outlook, gmail etc .
Hit the message button on your forum account page and send message . it will appear in their inbox and you can have a conversation on there .. but not 100% private as it is on the Folksy system
Type a reply into the forum by going to the topic in the forum and hitting reply.
You may have notifications set up from the forum to get notified anytine anyone replies. They are not private messages to you.They are simply to tell you that someone has replied. You can switch them off. If you reply on them they will appear in the forum topic just as if you visited the forum topic and hit reply in there.
Message the seller on one of their social media accounts using the messaging button
That should cover it. Used to do a lot of user training in my IT professional days 
Thanks for clarifying Joy @JOYSofGLASS it’s as I thought, thank goodness I haven’t completely lost the plot!
No you’ll be fine 
Think Susan just confused everyone so thought it all needed clarifying. Even confused me for a minute until i worked out what she had screen shot.
Not assisted looking at it on my tiny phone one-eyed as I’m sporting an aggravating stye .
Ouch, that sounds painful Joy, hopefully it gets better soon.
Got mild hay fever.. or at least a bit of an allergy to tree pollen and the trees are in full flow. I am Really careful not to touch my eyes normally as goodness knows what might be on my fingers… glass frit, glue, solder, acidic flux. And i’ve also had my hands in lots of compost, gardening. Took a lump off my fiinge this monring to stop that popping into my eyes as it is so easy to just brush it aside with a mucky finger !!
I apologise to everyone if I typed something last night which was read the wrong way.
I was unable to give a proper helpful reply as i had a compress on my eye trying to heal a bad stye so asked if someone else could explain.
Innappropriate… ?? 
I’m sorry Susan I usually try and keep out of these conversations when things get personal but I think in this instance you have overstepped the mark. I know you have your beef about the search, as do all of us, but joy didn’t deserve these comments. How communication works in the forums is confusing, I found it that way when I started here but overtime I have navigated it all with the help of other people on this forum. Joy was kindly trying to help us understand how this all works, I’m not sure why you had to react the way you did. We are all here trying to help each other as best we can.
You didn’t confuse anyone. I was also unaware of the issue you brought up.
Ok.
We have hidden some posts in this and another thread. While there is nothing wrong with clarifying how the forum and notifications work, and it is helpful to explain for those that might not be familiar with it, we would like to remind everyone of our Community Policy - Terms of Service - Folksy Forums
In particular, the rule on being welcoming, considerate and respectful.
Act with care and patience towards other users. You may not always agree with what someone has posted, or think that it is necessary or even within our rules, but be kind and considerate in your responses.
Please consider whether your words could come across as unkind, even if that is not how you intend them, as tone is not always clear online.
Remain respectful in your responses and allow others to share differing opinions. If you disagree with someone, it’s ok to criticise the idea but not the person.
Please keep responses here about the main thread topic and not about the hidden comments, or the threads may have to be closed.
I cannot believe you are still commenting on what happened.
I’ve had my ‘warning’ so to speak so you should be content with that.
Stop. Enough is enough.
Twins
It seems we have fallen out. It upsets me very much to think I have upset someone. I’m quite friendly really.
I apologise for anything i have written which has offended you. It was not intended.
Can we please agree to disagree and shake hands on this matter.
Joy
