# Category not accepting "anonymous email" from known users

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [April 20, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871 "2016-04-20T12:13:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 16

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dachary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dachary/32/119731_2.png) [@dachary](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dachary)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2021, 10:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871/16 "2021-10-07T10:43:42Z")

</div>

It does not work because **validations** are about the content of the post, not about permissions to create a post or not…

I tested the patch below to work. It is a **hack do not try this at home** 😱 Its merit is to roughly identify where changes should happen. The challenge is to figure out how to do that in a proper way. Any advice would be most welcome 🙏

```plaintext
diff --git a/app/jobs/regular/notify_mailing_list_subscribers.rb b/app/jobs/regular/notify_mailing_list_subscribers.rb
index c535296105..1d3bf79637 100644
--- a/app/jobs/regular/notify_mailing_list_subscribers.rb
+++ b/app/jobs/regular/notify_mailing_list_subscribers.rb
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ module Jobs
 
       DiscourseEvent.trigger(:notify_mailing_list_subscribers, users, post)
       users.find_each do |user|
- if Guardian.new(user).can_see?(post)
+ if Guardian.new(user).can_see?(post) && Guardian.new(user).can_see_category_staged?(post.topic.category)
           if EmailLog.reached_max_emails?(user)
             skip(user.email, user.id, post.id,
               SkippedEmailLog.reason_types[:exceeded_emails_limit]
diff --git a/app/models/category.rb b/app/models/category.rb
index 630a74c425..6c253650c6 100644
--- a/app/models/category.rb
+++ b/app/models/category.rb
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
       end
     else
       permissions = permission_types.map { |p| CategoryGroup.permission_types[p] }
- where("(:staged AND LENGTH(COALESCE(email_in, '')) > 0 AND email_in_allow_strangers)
+ where("(LENGTH(COALESCE(email_in, '')) > 0 AND email_in_allow_strangers)
           OR categories.id NOT IN (SELECT category_id FROM category_groups)
           OR categories.id IN (
                 SELECT category_id
@@ -209,7 +209,6 @@ class Category < ActiveRecord::Base
                  WHERE permission_type IN (:permissions)
                    AND (group_id = :everyone OR group_id IN (SELECT group_id FROM group_users WHERE user_id = :user_id))
              )",
- staged: guardian.is_staged?,
         permissions: permissions,
         user_id: guardian.user.id,
         everyone: Group[:everyone].id)
diff --git a/lib/guardian/category_guardian.rb b/lib/guardian/category_guardian.rb
index 94a48466d6..2a4ba8015c 100644
--- a/lib/guardian/category_guardian.rb
+++ b/lib/guardian/category_guardian.rb
@@ -64,6 +64,14 @@ module CategoryGuardian
   end
 
   def can_see_category?(category)
+ return false unless category
+ return true if is_admin?
+ return true if !category.read_restricted
+ return true if category.email_in.present? && category.email_in_allow_strangers
+ secure_category_ids.include?(category.id)
+ end
+
+ def can_see_category_staged?(category)
     return false unless category
     return true if is_admin?
     return true if !category.read_restricted

```

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-not-accepting-anonymous-email-from-known-users/42871)._