Simpler email subject lines

News and Events Aankondigingen
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We’re making small updates to Discourse’s default email subject lines to make them appear tidier and less technical in your members’ inboxes. We’ve heard that our emails can make the community feel too technical, which can alienate members, so we hope these improvements will address those concerns in part.

In this topic, we’ll review the changes and share how you can start using this today.

:microscope: What’s changed

We’ve simplified email subject lines to reduce redundant information and eliminate some of the more technical formatting.

These changes impact two general types of emails.

Emails sent from the community

These are generally account-related emails (e.g., registration emails, emails sent upon promotion to admin status, activity summaries, community chat emails, etc.).

For these emails, we have removed the [%{email_prefix}], which typically displays the community name, from the subject line, since the email is sent “From” the community.

Before this change…

The subject line of an email sent from the community without the simple email subject feature enabled.

The subject line of a chat-based email sent from a community member without the simpler email subject lines enabled.

After this change…

The subject line of an email sent from the community with the simple email subject feature enabled.

The subject line of a chat-based email sent from a community member with the simpler email subject lines enabled.

Emails sent from other members

These are generally notification emails (e.g., when someone sends you a PM, replies to a topic you are Tracking or Watching, etc.).

For these emails, we have:

  • Removed the brackets around the %{email_prefix}
  • Removed the [PM] annotation from notifications generated by PMs
  • Removed the [Category] annotation from topic notifications

Before this change…

The subject line of a PM-based email sent from a community member without the simpler email subject lines enabled.

The subject line of a category-based email sent from a community member without the simpler email subject lines enabled.

After this change…

The subject line of a PM-based email sent from a community member with the simpler email subject lines enabled.

The subject line of a category-based email sent from a community member with the simpler email subject lines enabled.

:gear: Turning on simpler email subject lines in your community

For now, this is considered an experimental change! We’re welcoming your feedback, which will help us make improvements and roll this out further.

To turn this on, head to the Upcoming changes page in your admin area (/admin/config/upcoming-changes) and find the Simple email subject item. Update the Enabled for… field to opt your site in to this new design.

The simple email subject upcoming change, which you can adjust to turn this feature on.
The simple email subject upcoming change, which you can adjust to turn this feature on.973×482 47.4 KB

:warning: If you have customized the email_subject setting or any site texts related to email subjects, turning on the Upcoming Change will not overwrite your customizations. We are updating our defaults with this change, but we don’t want to replace any custom configurations in your site. If you want to go with our new defaults, you’ll need to first clear your customizations in the email_subject setting and relevant site texts.

:mega: What do you think?

Over to you: we’d love to hear what you think of this new feature. What do you like and dislike; what is working well, and what could be improved?

14 likes
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We’ve been exploring simplifying emails for our community, and I appreciate what’s being proposed here.

In our case, the categories are often associated with distinct groups. So if we remove the [Category] indicator from the subject, we’d need a way to include that within the message itself so folks know who is being addressed and who they would be messaging if they respond.

We also had this somewhat related request: Subcategory display options in email templates

4 likes
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Thanks, this makes a lot of sense.

Personally, I think the [PM] indicator is useful because it’s not always apparent when someone is communicating publicly or privately.

I have never looked into customization, but for defaults the change seems good.

4 likes
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I love it, thank you :smiley:

Is that an important piece of information to know in the subject of an email notification though? :thinking:

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Personally I find the UI difference between PMs and public posts on the website to be far too small. They are basically identical. I suppose that’s a different design issue.

But in my email interface, once I am reading there is nothing else telling me that the message is from a PM and not a public post. And if someone contacts me using the message button in a public thread, then the email subject line will by default be identical to the public thread title, except for the addition of “Re:” which in email land doesn’t mean anything other than that it is a reply.

But I guess your question is really about if it matters if I know if someone is sending me something that is just between me and them, or if I am reading something that is between me, them, and the whole internet. Personally I’m not in the habit of replying by email, but If I was, I would want the distinction to be very, very clear.

1 like