# Changing \`system\` account email
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 25, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354 "2017-01-25T21:22:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@David\_Collantes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Collantes)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2017, 9:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/1 "2017-01-25T21:22:19Z")
The `system` account on my play install had the email `no_email`. As an admin, I tried changing it, but misspell it. When I tried to change it again, it tells me _“We’ve sent an email to that address. Please follow the confirmation instructions.”_ What now?
Is it a bug? Shouldn’t the `system` (or whatever one decides to rename it to) be exempt of email confirmations/verifications?
---
### Author:  [@mpalmer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mpalmer)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/2 "2017-01-26T00:15:41Z")
Why are you changing the `system` account’s e-mail address?
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### Author:  [@David\_Collantes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Collantes)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/3 "2017-01-26T00:52:03Z")
I wasn’t changing it, even though I wrote “changing.” My mistake. What was on the email field, `no_email` wasn’t an email address, so I was simply setting an email for it. It has a little pencil icon, it allowed me to enter an email address. If I weren’t supposed to set it, why was I allowed to?
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### Author:  [@David\_Collantes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Collantes)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 1:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/4 "2017-01-26T13:14:36Z")
I was able to correct the incorrectly entered email (just suddenly allowed me), but email confirmation to that account is never received. Email is working fine for everything else.
I strongly recommend the `system` account be make really special (no preferences, nothing else). As an admin, one can impersonate `system` and I can see it as if it were a regular user. It seems it isn’t.
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### Author:  [@ChrisBeach](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChrisBeach)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/6 "2017-01-26T16:17:26Z")
When I last impersonated system, I found that users had sent private messages to it, expecting to reach the admin team.
Yet no admins had received a notification of this. It was pure luck I randomly chose to impersonate system and see the messages.
Personally, I think messages sent to system should become group PMs that include all admins, and maybe moderators.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/7 "2017-01-26T16:31:36Z")
I’ve found that using the setting `site contact username` is the best approach in this case.
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### Author:  [@ChrisBeach](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChrisBeach)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/8 "2017-01-26T16:36:56Z")
> [@Falco](#):
>
> I’ve found that using the setting site contact username is the best approach in this case.
I did indeed do that (the site contact username is me).
But for official site posts ([example](https://se23.life/t/groups-on-se23-life/2620)), we change ownership to “system” to make it clear that they represent the site and are not personally related to any one admin/moderator.
It would be great to continue to do so, and to have any PMs sent to “system” turn into group PMs to the moderators
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/9 "2017-01-26T17:01:47Z")
> [@ChrisBeach](#):
>
> But for official site posts (example), we change ownership to “system” to make it clear that they represent the site and are not personally related to any one admin/moderator.
Oh, so tha’s why.
Discourse has a (somewhat hidden) feature for that.
Click on the post wrench and **Add Staff Color** to make an **official announcement**. You may need to style this post type to better fit your design.
That way you can use real people for announcements and your readers can differentiate when you are talking as a member or as the admin.
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### Author:  [@ChrisBeach](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChrisBeach)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 5:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/10 "2017-01-26T17:04:57Z")
> [@Falco](#):
>
> Click on the post wrench and Add Staff Color to make an official announcement. You may need to style this post type to better fit your design.
That is a good feature which we use fully - We re-styled these to be used to highlight moderation “interventions”. Example:
The CSS adds a gold outline around the avatar and changes the user title text to “Moderator”
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### Author:  [@David\_Collantes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/David_Collantes)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/11 "2017-01-26T17:15:04Z")
Share that snippet, please. I like it!
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### Author:  [@ChrisBeach](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChrisBeach)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/12 "2017-01-27T12:33:18Z")
> [@David\_Collantes](#):
>
> Share that snippet, please. I like it!
```
.post-stream .moderator a.main-avatar img {
border: 2px inset yellow; margin-top: -2px; margin-left: -2px;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #880;
}
.post-stream .moderator .names, .post-stream .moderator .topic-body .names span a {
color: #880;
}
.post-stream .moderator .topic-body {
background-color: #ffffea;
}
.post-stream .moderator span.user-title {
display: none;
}
.post-stream .moderator .names:after {
content: "Moderator";
}
```
---
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2022, 7:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/changing-system-account-email/56354/15 "2022-09-27T07:06:36Z")