Allow reply-to individual instead of topic/forum (mailing list feature)

support
20

After lots of support and help from others, I have finally sorted out the rawest form of how to accomplish this. It is presented below as a patch:

diff --git a/lib/email/message_builder.rb b/lib/email/message_builder.rb
index f099b11..2a69249 100644
--- a/lib/email/message_builder.rb
+++ b/lib/email/message_builder.rb
@@ -147,7 +147,15 @@ module Email
 
       if allow_reply_by_email?
         result['X-Discourse-Reply-Key'] = reply_key
-        result['Reply-To'] = reply_by_email_address
+        if @opts[:private_reply] == true
+          result['Reply-To'] = reply_by_email_address
+        else
+          p = Post.find_by_id @opts[:post_id]
+          result['Reply-To'] = "#{p.user.name} <#{p.user.email}>"
+          result['CC'] = reply_by_email_address
+        end
       else
         result['Reply-To'] = from_value
       end

This patch does the following:

  1. By default, users who hit ‘reply to’ will only reply to the sending user.
  2. For a user to post a public message to the mailing list / topic, they would have to hit ‘reply all’.
  3. It does not act on private messages.

Note: This exposes the sender’s email address to all recipients.

Unfortunately, I will implement this patch for our use-case effective immediately.

However, I recognize that it would be amazing if the following were true:

  1. A per-category or site-wide option to select this
  2. A per-category or site-wide option to expose email addresses.
  3. Integration into personal messages rather than via email directly.
  4. When the responding user hits ‘reply all’ and selects both the list and the sending user, the sending user should not receive an email notification from Discourse. Currently, two messages - one via email and one via Discourse - will arrive.

I hope the patch as it is helps somebody. If I could make it a per-category option, would you guys consider folding it into the master branch, @erlend_sh?

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