In a support discussion about “forwarded emails behavior” settings (hide, quote, create_replies), ToddZ tested and documented how each setting affects forwarded emails: ‘hide’ strips original sender info and attributes the post to the forwarder; ‘quote’ preserves original sender info in the post content and attributes to the forwarder; ‘create_replies’ strips original info but attributes to the original sender. simon added that if the forwarder includes text above the forwarded message separator, ‘create_replies’ posts that text as a reply, while ‘quote’ includes it inline — illustrated with screenshots. Simon also referenced a meta discussion here and suggested improving the setting’s description. ToddZ acknowledged the insight, noting they hadn’t tested adding text above the separator.
I searched around, but couldn’t find documentation of the purpose and effect of the settings for “forwarded emails behavior”: hide / quote / create_replies.
I tested by forwarding messages to a Category email address, and concluded:
hide:
strips originating email information from Topic content.
appears to come from forwarder, and creates a staged user for forwarder if one does not exist.
quote:
includes originating email information in Topic content, including source name and address.
appears to come from forwarder, and creates a staged user for forwarder if one does not exist.
create_replies
strips originating email information from Topic content.
appears to come from originating sender, and creates a staged user for originating sender if one does not exist.
If I’m missing any effects or implications of these settings, I’d love to know.
There are differences between the ‘quote’ and ‘create_replies’ option if the forwarder adds text above the ---------- Forwarded message --------- line in the email. For that case, create_replies will post the text that appeared above the ---------- Forwarded message --------- line as a reply:
There’s some discussion about the setting here: `enable_forwarded_emails` doesn't behave like conventional email forwarding. I had to actually test it to understand how the setting works. Maybe that’s the best approach, but I think some attempt could be made to improve the setting’s description: ‘How to treat a forwarded email to Discourse.’
