Panel Chat

Panel Chat is YAWBDB's built-in messaging system.

It lets users communicate directly from the web panel without relying only on Discord.

💬 Direct messages

You can start a private conversation with another platform user.

This is useful for quick discussions, support follow-up, or coordination outside a Discord server.

👥 Group conversations

Panel Chat supports group conversations.

Groups can include multiple members and roles such as member, moderator, or owner.

Group owners and moderators can manage group settings depending on permissions.

⚡ Real-time messages

Messages update in real time.

Users can see new messages, edits, deletions, and reactions without refreshing the page.

💬 Message features

Panel Chat supports a rich message experience:

Markdown formatting
Replies
Reactions
Mentions
GIF picker
URL embeds
Message editing
Message deletion
Reporting messages

🟢 Presence and status

Users can show presence states such as:

Online
Away
Do Not Disturb

Status indicators appear across chat and other platform areas where relevant.

💬 Support conversations

YAWBDB can use chat conversations for platform support.

Support staff can manage tickets from the backoffice and reply directly to users.

🛡️ Safety

Messages are rendered safely. Markdown is supported, but raw unsafe HTML is not stored or trusted.

Users can report inappropriate messages for platform moderation.

🗑️ Who can delete a message

Your own messages: you can delete them at any time.
Someone else's message: only a platform moderator or administrator, and only in a conversation they are part of. Group owners and group moderators cannot delete other members' messages; they can report them.
Before deleting someone else's message, the panel asks for confirmation. The deletion cannot be undone.
Every deletion of someone else's message is recorded in the platform audit log: who deleted it, which message, whose message and in which conversation. The text itself is not kept.
A moderator who is not part of a conversation acts through the report queue instead, which is recorded the same way.

🔒 How your messages are stored

Your messages are encrypted on our disks. A copy of the database on its own, without the key kept apart from it, shows no readable text.

The platform team can still read a message when it is reported, and support conversations are read by the support staff, as before. This is encryption at rest: it protects what is stored, it does not hide your messages from the platform.

The same applies to the earlier versions of an edited message, and to the messages of server tickets, reports and appeals.

Deleting a message also deletes its earlier versions. Nothing of an edited then deleted message stays in the history.
The email for a new message does not quote it. It says who wrote to you and in which conversation, with a link to open it in the panel.

🔐 A private conversation

A one to one conversation can be made private. What you write is then sealed in your browser and opened in the other person's browser. The server stores a message it cannot read, and neither can the platform team.

The sealing is end to end encryption built on the MLS protocol. Each browser you use holds keys of its own, and they never leave it.

This is a choice, not the default. A normal conversation stays as described above: encrypted on our disks, readable by the platform when a message is reported.

Only one to one conversations can be made private. Group conversations cannot.

💻 Your devices

Each browser you use for private conversations is a device. Open My devices in your account menu to see them.

Set up this browser. Type a name for it (for example "Laptop, Firefox") and click Set up. The page creates this browser's keys and keeps them on it. Only its public key and the name you choose are sent.
See your devices. The list shows each device, the day it was added, and which one is This device.
Remove a device with Remove. A removed browser has its keys erased and can no longer read new private messages. If you remove another device because you lost it or no longer trust it, the page suggests creating a new recovery phrase, which closes your saved history to it for good.
A browser removed from another device shows a notice. Set it up again to use it.
A browser that cannot hold these keys says so. An up to date Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari can.

🔑 Your recovery phrase

The recovery phrase is also on the My devices page. It is twelve words that let you read your private history again on a new browser, a new phone, or after clearing your site data.

Create it. Click Create my recovery phrase, write the twelve words on paper in order, then click I have written them down. They are not shown again, though See the words again works until you confirm.
Confirm it. Type the phrase again. Accents and capital letters do not matter. If the words do not match, the page tells you to check what you wrote down.
If the language has no official word list, the words are in English, and the page says so.
Unlock your history on another browser. When this browser cannot read your history, the page asks for your phrase. Type it and click Unlock.
Create a new phrase at any time. If this browser holds your history, the old phrase stops working and the history is kept. If it does not, the history kept so far can no longer be read, on any device. The page asks you to confirm either way.

The panel never receives your phrase and cannot give it back. Nobody can, not support, not an administrator. If you lose it, that history is lost.

✅ Before you can turn it on

You need both of these, and the conversation's panel tells you which one is missing:

This browser is set up as a device.
You have created your recovery phrase.

Nothing can be sealed for the other person until they have set up a device too. The panel says so.

🤝 Turning it on

Open the conversation and click the gear at the top right (its tooltip reads Private conversation).
Read the list of what changes, then click Offer to make it private. The other person sees the offer above the conversation.
They click Accept (or Turn it down). From that moment on, every new message is sealed. A short line in the thread says the conversation is private from there.

You can withdraw the offer while it is waiting. The messages written before stay as they were, and are marked "Written before this conversation became private. Not sealed."

A small lock appears in the conversation header, and the panel reads "Private since" and the date. Messages sealed by the sender's device carry a badge saying so.

↩️ Turning it back off

At any time, either of you can click Turn it back to a plain conversation in the same panel, after a confirmation. The other person is told in the thread. What was sealed stays sealed, and what is written from then on is not.

📋 What changes while it is on

No reactions, no editing, no link preview and no GIF search in that conversation.
A message there cannot be reported, because moderation cannot read it. If someone bothers you, block them and report the account.
The email for a new message no longer says what was written.
On another browser, the history opens only with your recovery phrase.
The input is closed with "This browser cannot write in this conversation" when this browser is not in the conversation. Open it on the browser that turned it on, or unlock your history with your recovery phrase.
A message this browser cannot open shows "Sealed message this browser cannot open".
A message the server added without a seal from a device in the conversation is not shown.

🔔 The strip above the conversation

A strip above the conversation says where it stands, one line each:

an offer waiting, with Withdraw the offer, or See what changes and Turn it down for the person who received it
"Set this browser up as a device first", with a link to My devices
"This browser is not in this conversation"
"Opening this conversation…"
"{name} has to open the chat once, so their browser leaves a key yours can seal to" when the other person's browser has run out of one-time keys
a warning when this browser is not keeping the history, so another browser of yours will not be able to read it

⚠️ "A device key changed"

When one of the other person's devices offers a key your browser has never seen, a red strip appears above the conversation with Details, and nothing is sent to that device.

This is normal when they have just set up a new browser. Ask them, outside the panel if you can. If they have set nothing up, stop writing in that conversation.

🆕 A new device appears

When a device appears that your browser has not approved, an amber strip says so and nothing is sent to it until you click Approve.

Your own new device: approve it only if it is yours. If it is not, remove it on the My devices page.
The other person's new device: you can approve it, or ask them whether it is theirs. If it blocks the conversation, approving it opens the conversation.

💡 Best practices

Use DMs for quick one-to-one discussions.
Use groups for ongoing team conversations.
Use support tickets for official support requests.
Report abusive messages instead of responding aggressively.
Keep sensitive server secrets out of chat unless you trust all participants.