Moderators should be able to keep a record of sent PMs

[Colonel_mortis]

Currently, if a member does something that you want to discourage, but isn't too severe, such as posting their thread in several places on the site, repeated bumping, or something like that, you have a choice between sending a PM, in which case there is no record of it to any other staff, so if it happens again the staff member dealing with it then can't see that it has happened before, or sending a verbal warning, which is tracked, but is far too aggressive under many circumstances - they only bumped a topic, so

is not a proportional response.

If it were possible to send a member a PM, but let the staff member summarise it so that any staff member can look at what the member has been notified about before, and take additional action if the member is ignoring the messages that they have been sent and continuing to break the rules.

My idea for how it would work is that on the "send PM" page, if you have the appropriate mod permission, you can check a box to say that it is a moderation PM, and that will show the additional details box, where you can fill in a one line summary for other mods. To view the summaries, there would be a tab on the member's profile, and also probably something relevant on their hovercard, as well as possibly a truncated list when you check the box while sending a PM.

This would make formal communication about minor issues far easier, which would be a massive plus for the mod team.

[Morrigan]

I like it. More or less this would be like a verbal warning and the warning system is like being written up. 

I think that's clever. 

[Jed Rosenzweig]

We have a warning type called "Just A Note" which we use but it does trigger warning language like the box above and if people don't read it carefully they think they are being warned.

An alternative to the OP's idea would be to make the notion of "this isn't a warning, just a note/tap on the shoulder" an option inside the warning system. Perhaps using the "note" type would generate a different color box and replace the language with something friendlier. Quick mock up: