When users post to the forum by replying to an email notification, they are often missing the context of the information that’s been posted after the message to which they are replying. This has at times resulted in a good deal of confusion.
Because of this, we are considering turning off the ability to reply by email. If we do turn off reply by email, you would still get the same email notifications that you currently have set up and you will still be able to click the link in those emails to go directly to the forum post.
It’s a protest non-vote because I know I’m bound to be the only one hating it and it hurts my feelings to be pinned in that category by myself like being gigged or something (think outside the tines! )
If that’s the case, then I’m going to tag at least one other user into this for a possible vote because I’ve noticed frequent Forum replies from @fmills1d.
Three for I don’t love the woman, but I can live with her.
Three for Deny harmless options that help him subsist.
A sad commentary.
By my reckoning, EMAIL RESPONDING is not the culprit of confusion - it is the flagrant neglect of the “reply to individual user” function (vs “reply to general Topic”) that throws users for a loop.
I think that’s a valid point, because I’ve often responded in topics when it appeared that a prior response was directed specifically at me—because the user hit the “Reply to Post Button” instead of the “Reply to Topic Button”—then later the user said that the previous comment wasn’t actually meant to be directed to me. That happens, and that’s an easy mistake to make. I’ve done it, and I’m not sure how to correct or better account for that among users in general. I try to pay attention to whether or not my response is to an individual or to the topic, but that’s still really easy to misdirect.
I completely agree that this is one of the culprits of confusion, though.
I think it’s time to stop casting aspersions on useful options like EMAIL RESPONDING and lay the blame firmly where it belongs (as I and my esteemed colleague have laid out above.)
Therefore, I move that the poll in question be IMMEDIATELY CLOSED but left as a monument to wrongheadedness corrected in time by community consensus. :female-judge:
I like the idea of not allowing reply by email because we often get people confused thinking every single reply in a thread was someone replying to them directly like a DM and replying to every post until someone tells them they’re confused because they’re using email. I see it add confusion to a lot of non-technical people who are used to emails meaning someone is talking to them directly.
My question is, if you turn off reply by email, are we suddenly going to have a whole bunch of people still replying to the email and assuming their reply posted, but not know that it didn’t? Will it warn them and let them know their “reply” didn’t go anywhere nor was it seen by anyone? Basically, what happens if they reply to the email notification after support for reply by email is turned off?
Can we compromise and just make a special exception for those who have demonstrated responsible use of EMAIL RESPONDING? I may be the only one qualified at the moment but it could grow.
I think @carverofchoice asked some good questions, and I appreciate @Loki’s willingness to test.
I also really like this question @peepeep asked, and I’ll pose it another way: Is this a feature that could be Trust-Level-dependent? Does Discourse administration allow that kind of granular setting? Would it be possible to limit its use to TL2 or higher, for instance? (Even if it is, then you might have the issue of requiring different e-mail templates to manage the notification messages: one for TL2+ with the “or reply to this email to respond” message and one for TL0-TL1 without. My guess is that’s not really possible, but I don’t know, so I ask the questions.)
In addition to considering these things, I wonder what can be done to better educate users. I understand that some users are going to be resistant to education, and we don’t all have the same schedules or motivations for being here. Some, I’m sure, want to spend as little time as possible, because they want quick answers to questions while trying to solve a problem with a gadget. I get that.
We have these @discobot tutorials which I personally found helpful, but
I don’t know how much of that can be customized; that is, I don’t know if what plays here on Wyze Forum is immutable boilerplate Discourse or if any of the content can be modified to try to provide education about the “Reply by email” feature.
Even if you can add education there, I would not be in favor of forcing every new user to complete a tutorial prior to using the Forum, but I wonder if it could become a requirement at some point for continued use. (I realize no one is suggesting this; I’m just trying to think through different parts of the problem. I’m also referring to only new users in this context, not established users, though I don’t have any data on where the bulk of the “Reply by email” problem originates, so my thinking may be misguided.) At the very least, I would think there’d need to be some kind of probation or grace period if something like this was considered, kind of like a new employee training thing: You can go ahead and work, but you have to complete this online training if you want to continue working beyond two weeks (or whatever).
I don’t know what the answer is. I certainly don’t want to exclude users seeking help. I’m just thinking out loud about approaches to the problem.
Much respect to for sticking to his and contributing to this discussion only via to this point.
I often reply via email because there is no “Visit Topic” button to click and I am tagging a specific user. And yes, often after posting a comment and going back, there are subsequent comments posted that would have made me not comment or comment differently. Confusing? No! Gotten mud splashed in my face, HELL YES!!! I’m a big boy, I think?!?!
Looks like I may have stepped in it and can’t be neutral. Soooooo, I vote to not close email replies and keep them posting. I’ll do my due diligence and try to remember to go to the forum topic for replies. I’m adjusting to 3.0.5 but would like to see some improvements made pronto! I don’t hate it but I could like it better than I do.
Now back to my music on Sirius XM!! Since I have not posted in a couple weeks or more.
After consideration I changed my vote. I do see a lot benefits in not allowing email replies. But in the end I think my ideals better fit with potentially allowing people options and choice. It is what I often advocate on here, and even though I don’t like the problems that sometimes come with allowing people to reply by email, I guess I like that people have been allowed to choose to use it if they want. So I would not be upset if it gets removed, but even though I don’t like it and I don’t use it, I feel it would be wrong of me to go against my ideals of closing that option off for others even if they are subjecting themselves to confusion and less functionality or context clues.
Can you add disclaimers to the email that gets sent out? Maybe something about how we recommend visiting the forum directly since it is more clear with better context, etc? IDK, just trying to think of options.
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Edit: Thank you for voting! 
