Can I add a non-user's email address to an existing PM thread?

[downey (Michael Downey)]

Continuing the discussion from Send a Personal Message to an Email Address:

@jomaxro

You can now send a PM to an email address, even if the user does not exist on your site!

Is there a way to extend this so we can “add a non-registered person” to a PM thread by including their email address somewhere? I see in the UI that I can enter an email address using the Add or Remove … button in the block of existing particpants. But if I enter an email address there, the UI/UX looks more like it’s sending an “invitation” as I would invite an email address to an existing topic.

OTOH, the UX for starting a new PM to an email user seems pretty obvious. (Instead of typing a username in the composer recipient box, just use an email addreess and a little appears.) I’m just not sure how to loop these folks in to existing conversations.

[tobiaseigen]

@downey

But if I enter an email address there, the UI/UX looks more like it’s sending an “invitation” as I would invite an email address to an existing topic.

This is still the case. It looks like an invitation but you are actually adding the email address to the message.

The UI around handling staged users in Discourse could use some love, but is not prioritized for the moment because it’s not a commonly used feature.