Give an option to stop the bulk user invite process on warning (and make that the default option)

I’m trying to move a group[1] that currently coordinates activity via email to a group on my Discourse server. I decided to use the bulk invite function and my CSV file looked something like this:

user1@example.com, family_writing, 57
user2@example.com, family_writing, 57
. . . 

After submitting this file, I got this report:

Your bulk user invite file was processed, 10 invites mailed, 0 skipped and 10 warning(s).

[2024-01-21 05:29:08 +0000] Invalid Group ' family_writing'
[2024-01-21 05:29:08 +0000] Invalid Group ' family_writing'
...

My error was assuming the process would strip spaces from the group name fields. Afterall, group names can’t have spaces:

Screenshot 2024-01-21 at 6.28.01 PM

Thankfully I was able to change the 10 invites to go to the proper group before the recipients read their mail. I couldn’t find a way to edit the invites other than manually opening each invite and editing the “Ad to groups” field.[2]

Once the email is gone, it’s gone. In retrospect, I should have tested with the Gmail plus trick to invite myself. Still, the system saw there was a problem and yoloed the emails anyway. I’d have appreciated on option (ideally enabled by default) to not send those emails so that I could fix my file instead of fixing the invites.


  1. It’s theoretically a writers’ group, but we actually spend most of our time talking about family stuff. ↩︎

  2. Using the rails console would be the right choice for 100+ invites, but 10 is in the awkward place where manual editing is faster. ↩︎