The discussion revolves around enhancing the BCC plugin by adding a %{name} variable and aligning syntax with the Canned Replies plugin. nathank suggests using %{name} for personalization and proposes %{first_name} and %{last_name} for more granular control. Qursch implements the changes, addressing a bug where the first recipient’s name appeared in all messages Qursch. The issue is resolved, and the PR is merged. nathank confirms the fix and humorously notes the limitation of Discourse’s single name field, which prevents splitting first and last names without complex code. Qursch explains that a one-size-fits-all solution isn’t feasible due to the lack of separate first and last name fields.
This is for the official Bcc plugin.
Could we please have {name} as well as {username}? Using a real name is a lot more personal in forums where that is acceptable.
Have you considered bringing the UX/sentax in line with the (also official) Discourse Canned Replies plugin? For example, using the following instead of {username} and {@username}:
%{username}%{@username}and if applying my first suggestion:
%{name}Cc @Qursch
These both sound like good suggestions. I’ll start working on them this weekend.
Edit: PR was created.
Good stuff! But on testing I’ve noticed that the old problem has recurred and we have the name of the first recipient appearing in all subsequent messages - yikes! It is the same as:
I must be the only one actually using this feature at the mo!!
Just created a PR with what seems to be the fix, but I am unsure of why adding name personalization would break this as it was working before.
You are awesome! I’ll kick the tires once it is merged.
Hey, I realised something else that was wrong with my Name suggestion above - we actually need Firstname. Do you reckon it is possible to just use the first word of the string?
I could do that in Excel but no idea in Ruby!!!
Thanks, just trying to conrtibute where I can. I’ll actually add additional options for %{first_name} and %{last_name}, and change the existing to be full name.
How did you get on?
From Fix personalization (#11) · discourse/discourse-bcc@74442fd · GitHub it looks like the %{first_name} thing didn’t fly but you have fixed the bug.
P.S. do you like my nice Bug Reporter title? They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery!
Yeah, the bug should be fixed (I tested it repeatedly). In regards to first and last names, there can be no “one method fits all” as Discourse doesn’t have a separate field for first and last names, only one overall.
Great work!!! 
(not so sure that Gifs in Discourse is a great idea but saw it and couldn’t resist)
Yeah I know - it would require some clever code to split the string if it contained a space, only retaining the characters up until the space. And just using the whole string if there is no space.
Like I said, I can do that in Excel but not Javascript / Ruby!