---
title: Ignore, Spam and the client's "stop"
summary: Ignore erases a chat for good and stops taking its messages. Spam is a card category that silences the online admin and keeps the cards. When a client writes "stop", Talemo stops confirmations, reminders and cancellation notices and does not start the online admin.
tools: [talemo_categorize_contacts, talemo_list_contact_categories]
related: [who-answers, handoff-to-people, conversation-and-person, draft-replies]
search: [block, spam, unsubscribe]
---

# Ignore, Spam and the client's "stop"

## Ignore

**Ignore…** in a conversation or in its row of the list erases the conversation and
takes nothing more from that chat. Talemo asks twice, and says what will go: "We'll
erase the conversation completely and won't take new messages from this chat. What we
erase can't be brought back."

- The conversation goes with its messages, files and replies waiting to be sent.
- The next message from that chat does not come into Talemo, and the online admin
  does not answer it. The chat stays only in WhatsApp on the business phone, in the
  business's Instagram or in Messenger of the page.
- The card is erased when it has nothing but this chat. When it has visits, a note or
  other contacts, the card stays and only this chat's address leaves it.
- Knowledge suggestions drawn from this chat that nobody has approved are withdrawn.
  Approved ones stay in Knowledge, without the link to the chat.
- What is already in Today stays there, and what the assistant has told the person
  about this chat stays in the person's own conversation with it.

Only a person on the web ignores a chat, and only a role with that right. The
assistant, programs and the app cannot.

**Messages → Ignored** lists who is ignored: the number, the @handle or the name from
the profile, the channel, who pressed **Ignore** and when. **Stop ignoring** lets new
messages in again. The next message arrives as a new conversation, and the erased one
does not come back. Chats ignored before Talemo kept who they were are listed
together as "N without an address", and are released together.

## Spam

Spam is one of the three contact categories that every business has (see
[Contact categories](../clients/contact-categories.md)). A card is moved there with
**Move to…** in Messages or on the card. The cards are kept, and one moved by mistake
can be moved back.

- The online admin is off in conversations of Spam cards.
- Open handoffs and waiting drafts of that person close without an answer.
- Spam does not show in **All conversations**. It shows through its category or the
  card, and roles that cannot see the category do not see these chats.
- Talemo sends such a card no visit confirmations, reminders or cancellation notices.

## The client's "stop"

A message that is only the word "stop" (in any language) or its equivalent in a
service language, such as "стоп" in Russian, is a refusal. A longer message such as
"stop, can I come on Friday?" is not.

- The refusal is put on the contact it came from, and it covers the whole card: no
  confirmations, reminders or cancellation notices go to this person in any channel (see
  [Turning off reminders, confirmations and cancellation notices](../clients/reminders-opt-out.md)).
  Messenger gives no contact, so it goes on the card.
- Confirmations, reminders and cancellation notices already waiting to go are withdrawn.
- The online admin is not started for this message.
- Talemo answers with one phrase in the language of the card, shown in the
  conversation as "Talemo: reply to STOP".
- A word from the history before the channel was connected does not count.

## Tools and refusals

- Ignoring a chat, which forgets it whole and takes nothing more from it, and taking a chat off the ignored list are done only by a person in Talemo. No tool does them.
- Moving a card to Spam is a change of category: `talemo_categorize_contacts` with the category of spam (`talemo_list_contact_categories` names it). It moves several contacts at once, all or nothing, so call it with `dry_run` first and show the person. Spam closes the open handoffs of that person without an answer and silences the online admin in their conversations.
- A message that is only the word "stop" (it works in any language), or its equivalent in a service language, puts the opt-out on the card and starts no online admin; Talemo answers with its one phrase, which `talemo_get_conversation` shows with the author `system` and `notice` `opt_out`. See [Turning off reminders, confirmations and cancellation notices](../clients/reminders-opt-out.md).