# Create/See and Create Permissions (again)
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [11.Сентябрь.2015 23:43:22 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150 "2015-09-11T23:43:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [01.Июнь.2016 01:50:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/23 "2016-06-01T01:50:03Z")
Sure, they can reply to the welcome PM as needed.
Also clarification, and related, users can always **reply** to PMs they receive.
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### Author:  [@gingerman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gingerman)
#### Post date: [01.Июнь.2016 01:59:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/24 "2016-06-01T01:59:10Z")
Thanks for the hint. It would be really useful if we can link the welcome message to a button / link in the home page for eg “Contact”..otherwise it is very unintuitive for an end user to try this…simply because the welcome message is hidden in the messages page.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [01.Июнь.2016 02:04:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/25 "2016-06-01T02:04:29Z")
Feel free to create a public help topic about this and pin it or make it a banner if it is a frequently asked question on your site.
If you read the welcome PM, it _does_ explain this at the bottom, but.. That requires reading and processing words on a web page, which users are unlikely to do.
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### Author:  [@gingerman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gingerman)
#### Post date: [01.Июнь.2016 02:13:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/26 "2016-06-01T02:13:17Z")
One last question : Is there a way to configure another default PM for all users with a title “Reply to this message to contact staff” ?
This way I can link [https://domain/users/username/messages](https://domain/users/username/messages) to a “Contact” button and hope the user see this message.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [01.Июнь.2016 02:16:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/27 "2016-06-01T02:16:50Z")
I think you are ferociously paddling upstream here.
If you have explicitly disabled PMs, there is usually another prominent way to contact staff at the site in case of issues. For example see your built in about page, `http://discourse.example.com/about`
And TL1 users can still flag anything with a custom reason, which is a de facto PM to staff.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [19.Апрель.2017 12:18:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/31 "2017-04-19T12:18:23Z")
I second the opinion of @KazWolfe. Permissions is completely different from messaging.
PM is concerned with getting information sent between two parties.
What we in fact need here is a full **topic** with all the characteristics and behaviors of a topic. However, we just want to restrict the _participants_ of the topic due to confidentiality issues.
As far as I can see it, that’s purely a Permissions issue and not at all like a PM.
Why are we trying to push a square peg through a round hole? What we really need here, which can be solved elegantly and simply, are new _combinations_ of standard permissions.
And I can’t understand why these permutations have not been programmed in in the first place. There are seven possible permutations (six if you discount a lone Reply which doesn’t make sense), only three are used right now. Whether you decide to allow certain permutations is another unrelated matter.
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### Author:  [@Koinu](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Koinu)
#### Post date: [18.Август.2017 18:46:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/32 "2017-08-18T18:46:03Z")
This feature would enable a Private Feedback (Drop Box) arrangement, that is otherwise impossible to accomplish in a satisfactory way in Discourse.
Deficiencies of PMs for this use case are:
- I want the ability to receive Private Feedback from users that don’t have access to send PMs.
- I want the ability to not receive Private Feedback from otherwise highly trusted users.
- I want the submitted Private Feedback to live in one place, not mixed in with PMs in general.
- I want to add new Event Staff (≠ Discourse “Staff”) to be able to see Private Feedback retroactively.
- I want retired Event Staff to no longer have special access to the Private Feedback.
Deficiencies of external solutions:
- I want the Private Feedback submissions to be strongly tied to a user’s forum account.
- I’d like Private Feedback submissions to show up in a search on our Discourse for users that are authorized to see them.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [18.Август.2017 19:32:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/33 "2017-08-18T19:32:02Z")
Most of these all sound like the existing email in support.. that’s how `team@discourse.org` works right now. If you send an email there, it creates a private topic that staff here can see, and the email originator, but nobody else.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [21.Август.2017 03:33:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/34 "2017-08-21T03:33:52Z")
Yup, similar but again not the same. What really need are topics that have the correct permissions pattern. Trying to do it via emails will make it complicated… What if some forums turns off emailing?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [21.Август.2017 03:35:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/35 "2017-08-21T03:35:39Z")
If that is the case, you should look at different free software, as we have no plans for arbitrary topic permissions on the roadmap for the foreseeable future.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [21.Август.2017 12:36:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/36 "2017-08-21T12:36:27Z")
> [@schungx](#):
>
> Trying to do it via emails will make it complicated… What if some forums turns off emailing?
I am still not following.
You allow `@team` to accept private messages. Then anyone can PM the group. Email does not even need to be enabled for that.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [22.Август.2017 06:01:43 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/37 "2017-08-22T06:01:43Z")
True. But the point is, the user experience is different…
PM is still not as simple and straight-forward as creating a topic in a category. Anyone knows how to do that. Not everyone knows how to create a PM.
However, if we can set up **categories** just for PM’s (i.e. all topics created there are actually PM’s sent to a particular group/team), then it will work just great!
I believe I’ve read somewhere that PM’s can be categorized. Can categories be set to be “PM-only”?
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [22.Август.2017 06:18:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/38 "2017-08-22T06:18:41Z")
> [@schungx](#):
>
> I believe I’ve read somewhere that PM’s can be categorized. Can categories be set to be “PM-only”?
Not that I’m aware of, although I remember @erlend_sh talking about something related (theoretically) but I can’t find that now.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [22.Август.2017 12:07:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/39 "2017-08-22T12:07:07Z")
This kind of stuff may be doable in a plugin, but as a policy we are quite strict on never mixing PMs and non PMs in topic lists
We have plans to allow tagging on pms, categories no, cause it mixes security systems
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### Author:  [@elijah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elijah)
#### Post date: [22.Август.2017 21:10:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/40 "2017-08-22T21:10:24Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Most of these all sound like the existing email in support… that’s how `team@discourse.org` works right now. If you send an email there, it creates a private topic that staff here can see, and the email originator, but nobody else.
> [@schungx](#):
>
> Yup, similar but again not the same. What really need are topics that have the correct permissions pattern.
Sure sounds like a web form that emails to your version of team@ would cover your feedback situation nicely. Web form-to-email solutions abound.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [23.Август.2017 03:47:15 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/41 "2017-08-23T03:47:15Z")
Er… so how do I go about setting this up? Sending email to the forum to automatically create a private topic? A link to some docs will be great!
And can the topic be restricted to members of a certain group, instead of having them be staff?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [23.Август.2017 04:32:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/42 "2017-08-23T04:32:58Z")
I think @sam had the better point here, simply experiment with group PMs first to get a feel for how it works.
The only thing email-in adds to the mix is staged accounts based on someone’s email address. And of course emailing-in.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [24.Август.2017 05:50:36 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/43 "2017-08-24T05:50:36Z")
OK. I found `email in` in the Email settings. Let me try it out…
The reason being I have disabled messaging for all users. Which means PM’s go one way only.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [24.Август.2017 05:57:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/44 "2017-08-24T05:57:14Z")
True however users can always _reply_ to any PM they get.
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### Author:  [@schungx](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schungx)
#### Post date: [24.Август.2017 14:58:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-see-and-create-permissions-again/33150/45 "2017-08-24T14:58:00Z")
OK. Got that working. Actually the following is not particular clear:
- `pop3 polling enabled` - standard description is `Poll via POP3 for email replies.` However, if this is not turned on, `email in` will not be polled also. So, it really should be `Poll via POP3 (necessary for email replies and email in).` I had it off because I don’t have `email reply` and pulled out some of my hair.
- `Use SSL while connecting to the POP3 server` can conflict with `pop3 polling port`. If `pop3 polling port` is set to 110 (which usually means non-SSL), it still tried to use SSL and failed silently. Need to look at the logs to find out that OpenSSL was failing on pop3 connect.
- The category setting is misleading. `Custom incoming email address:` probably should be `Create topics from emails sent to:` The account/address is the recipient/destination address, not the incoming/sender address.
One question though:
A somebody emails in. A topic is created under a specified category. Users allowed into the category can see it and reply to it. After a while the originator gets an email with the replies. All is great.
But if the originator is only a staged user, then he won’t get these emails. He wont get any response.
And how does he reply back? If `email reply` is **NOT** turned on? Why – my company’s email server doesn’t support wildcards.
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