Direct send email to a small group in a closed category

[Frank_Meeuwsen]

I searched on this forum and only found this post which is quite similar to my question. But unfortunately not an answer to work upon:

Ability to send a topic via email to entire community

Would be an interesting feature if the community admin could push an important topic to the entire community via email. Users may get the digest, but if there’s breaking news, would be neat if this could be broadcast somehow. Currently, the only option is to add a topic to the one default category we have people watching, which only admins can post in. But would be better if the original post could be shared directly

We have a growing forum for our app-users. We recently started a closed category for 25+ beta testers to communicate on new features and review new betas. One of the painpoints in driving engagement and getting feedback is the lack of email possibilities. What I would like to do is make a new topic and when I save it, Discourse immediately sends out an email to the small group. I am the only one who makes new topics right now, but even when there is someone else who makes a topic, it shouldn’t be a problem. The category is very low-volume so no danger of spam.

Is this possible with Discourse? I can’t find the proper checkboxes or preferences to do this…

Thanks
Frank

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

You can force all the users to watch the category. Here are a couple plugins (they’d need to be customized for your site)

https://github.com/techAPJ/discourse-watch-category-rzim/

https://github.com/amical/discourse-watch-category/

Also, if it’s email you want, you can PM the group or @mention them in the post.

[tobiaseigen]

@pfaffman

PM the group

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think if the group is a large one, only a selection of people will get the email notification.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Why do you say that? The rate limiter defaults? I think that would only prevent in very large groups… he said this is 25 people.

[tobiaseigen]

I think I got this confused with inviting groups to messages. With invites, only a few people get notified by email not everyone in the group.

My understanding of how groups and PMs works is evolving.

[Mittineague]

It may be particular to SitePoint, and to be clear it does not bother me. I have noticed that with the group Notication, that even if I have already read the posts by a different entry point it doesn’t clear until I go to the group message topics list. (I dismiss nothing, though I scan often)

As for emails, I don’t know. I’ve never been gone that long to use or need them as a conduit.

[Godmar_Back]

我也对这个功能表示强烈兴趣。

链接的插件是特殊处理的——将用户列表导出为此处建议并不是一个实时解决方案（也不是自动化的）。

我强烈支持能够创建“自动关注”用户类别的用例。例如，我和其他人一样，一直在使用 Discourse 来教授一门课程，作为 Canvas/Piazza 的替代品。我要求所有学生阅读“公告”类别，但除了收集他们的电子邮件并创建一个单独的电子邮件列表之外，我没有其他方法可以通过电子邮件将重要公告推送给他们（这是 Piazza 提供的功能）。即使自动订阅的用户可以取消订阅，我也能接受。

目前唯一可行的替代方法是要求每个人都关注这个类别。

[JammyDodger]

您可以在管理员设置中为类别通知设置默认值：

您也可以设置默认的标签通知。