Writing to another member, blocking and reporting, and what the bell in the header is counting.
You can write to another member of BoutHost, and they can write back. A conversation is between the two of you: no other member can read it, and it does not appear on your profile or anywhere else public. The one exception is a message somebody reports, which is covered further down.
There is no way to start a conversation from a blank page. You open one from a person, which means you always know who you are writing to.
There is a Message button:
You have to be signed in to see any of them. Pressing one opens the conversation and sends nothing; nothing exists until you write a message.
Sometimes the page will tell you that you cannot send a message to that person. It does not say why, and that is deliberate. It might be that they have switched messages off, that they are not listed in search, that they have blocked you, or that they are under 18 and cannot be messaged at all. Which of those applies is not something we tell a stranger.
The button is there either way. It appears on everybody's page rather than only on the pages of people who can be written to, because hiding it would itself tell you which people those are.
There is a second reason a message might be refused, and this one does tell you why, because it is about your own account rather than somebody else's.
To send a message you have to have a date of birth on your account, and you have to be 18 or over. If we do not have your date of birth, the page says so and links you to Settings → Profile — adding it is all that is needed. If you are under 18 you cannot send messages on BoutHost at all, and the page says that too; speak to your coach or the event organizer, who can help.
A missing date of birth costs more than messaging: it also keeps you out of the member directory and keeps your photo off public pages. Your dashboard says so until you add it.
They get a notification in the app and an email telling them you have written. Neither one contains your message. Both link to the conversation, and the message itself lives only in their inbox.
If you send several messages in a row, they are told once rather than once per message.
Messages in your account menu lists every conversation you are part of, with the most recent activity first. A dot marks a conversation with something new in it.
Opening a conversation shows the messages. There is no indicator anywhere telling the other person that you have read theirs, and there is none telling you that they have read yours.
Delete conversation removes it from your inbox. It does not remove it from theirs, and they are not told you did it.
If that person writes to you again, the conversation comes back carrying the new message only. The older messages do not return.
Once both of you have deleted a conversation, it is destroyed. A message that has been reported is the exception, and is kept so that it can still be looked at.
Blocking is in the menu at the top of a conversation. Once you block somebody:
That is all it does. It does not affect any event either of you has entered, it does not hide their profile from you or yours from them, and it changes nothing about a card you are both on. Blocking is not a way to remove somebody from an event.
They are not told. Nothing on their screen changes.
Unblock somebody under Settings → Privacy, which lists everybody you have blocked. That list only ever shows blocks you made. Nobody can see who has blocked them.
Every message somebody else has sent you has a Report link beside it. Tell us what is wrong with it.
A member of staff reads the message you reported and the rest of that conversation, because a single message out of context often does not show what happened. You are told this before you send the report. The person you reported is not told who reported them, and nothing in the conversation changes.
Settings → Privacy has a switch for whether other members can message you. Turning it off stops new messages and replies alike.
It does not hide you from the platform. Your name still appears on every event you enter, your profile is still there, you are still in search, and organizers can still invite you to compete. The only thing it stops is the message.
The bell in the header counts things BoutHost has told you that you have not read yet: an entry approved or rejected, an event you entered being cancelled or moved, an announcement from an organizer, an invitation to compete, and a new message. If you organize events, it also counts somebody entering one of yours or withdrawing from it.
Opening the bell does not mark anything as read. That happens when you act — following a notification, pressing the dot beside it, or using Mark all as read. Somebody who glances at the bell and gets interrupted should still be able to see what was new.
See all notifications, at the foot of the bell, opens the full list — including everything that has scrolled out of it.
Most of what reaches the bell is emailed as well, so you do not have to be on the site to find out that something changed.
Settings → Notifications is where the switches are. You can turn off the emails about messages, event invitations, announcements, reminders before an event you have entered, and — if you organize events — somebody entering or withdrawing from yours. Turning one off does not stop the thing happening: it still reaches the bell, so the app remains a complete record of what you were told.
Some emails have no switch, because each of them changes what you need to do: an event you entered being cancelled or moved, and an organizer approving or rejecting your entry.
If you have an entry on an event, BoutHost reminds you twice: a few days beforehand, and again on the morning before, with that day's schedule if the organizer has published one. Both arrive at nine in the morning where the event is, not where you are.
The reminder is about the event rather than about you — it does not mean your entry has been approved, and it is sent to everybody with a live entry including anybody still waiting to hear.
Settings → Privacy is the other half, and it answers a different question. Those switches decide whether somebody can reach you at all — whether members can message you, and whether organizers can invite you. Switching one of those off means the message or the invitation is never made, so there is no email either way.
When you edit an event, post an announcement or change a schedule, there is a checkbox asking whether to tell the people who have entered. Leaving it unticked tells nobody — no email and no notification. It is one switch covering both.
BoutHost is combat-sports event management — hosts run events, fighters declare the weight they will compete at, and federations confirm the cards they have sanctioned.
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