# Improving the user experience for email-only users
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563
**Category:** UX
**Tags:** email
**Created:** [2016年三月25日 14:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563 "2016-03-25T14:27:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2016年三月25日 14:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/1 "2016-03-25T14:27:03Z")
I think a combination of things would help users who rarely visit the site, but want to interact via email, **in a way that _much more closely matches_ the model Discourse has for _on-site_ usage**.
Here’s the rough idea for **Mailing List 2.0 mode** :
- All new _topics_ are sent by email, but not posts
- If a topic is _replied_ to, then it is _watched_
(This way, users can continue to interact with that topic via email-only).
- A button allows the user to watch the post in a single-click too, without signing into the site.
- A periodic _digest_ of all new _posts_ are sent out
- Daily is the default frequency, but can be adjusted
- The digest first lists the topics that have had replies, in a format similar to the /latest page
- Each row has a link to watch the topic
- Below the topic-list all posts are shown, grouped by topic
- Each post in the digest has a reply-by-email link to reply to that post
- Replying to a topic in this fashion also automatically sets it to _watched_ of course.
This “mailing list 2.0” mode is what I think we should be striving for as a default for these email-only users.
Related topics:
- [Get notified of new topics, but not posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/get-notified-of-new-topics-but-not-posts/12809)
- [More granular mailing list mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/more-granular-mailing-list-mode/38107)
- [Daily limits for outgoing mail per user](https://meta.discourse.org/t/daily-limits-for-outgoing-mails-per-user/41458)
- [Add a preference to auto-watch topics I replied in](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-a-preference-to-auto-watch-topics-i-replied-in/32057)
- [Automatically set topics to watching after posting](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-set-topics-to-watching-after-posting/21230)
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### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2016年三月25日 14:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/2 "2016-03-25T14:48:40Z")
Just to clarify:
I assume when you say “digest” here you’re talking about the more traditional LISTSERV-style digest (show all threads) rather than the Discourse “digest” (a sampling of popular threads) … right?
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2016年三月25日 14:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/3 "2016-03-25T14:49:45Z")
Yes, sorry… that’s what that word still means to me :-/
> [@mcwumbly](#):
>
> A periodic _digest_ of **all** new _posts_ are sent out
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### Author:  [@schlos](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schlos)
#### Post date: [2016年三月27日 10:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/4 "2016-03-27T10:28:35Z")
I agree with @mcwumbly on all except I really like Discourse digests as they are easy to read.
It could be added as configuration value (send immediately via email all new topics, seperate configuratuon option to enable sending all including every new post), and leave digest as is 😉
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2016年三月27日 13:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/5 "2016-03-27T13:02:45Z")
One of the great things about Discourse when you use it through the web interface is that it automatically helps you follow topics you have shown an interest in:
- Topics you start are automatically set to “watching”
- Topics you’ve read enough or replied to get set to “tracking” and are highlighted in your unread list
But as an email-only user, it means nothing to “track” a topic. So we want to set topics to “watching” if we want to boost their signal. And you can’t see what I’m reading via email, so we need to give a more explicit link to allow them to trigger that change _without_ requiring a reply.
Also, we want to give them a low-noise way to see every post they are _not_ watching so that when they do automatically watch a topic, there is actually a boost in signal.
The above features attempt to cover these concerns for email-only users.
Each one of these features may have some value independently, and the details can be sorted out as they are implemented if the team and community sees the value here.
Regarding the format of the all-new-posts digest email, I think that if the topic list were shown first [with anchor links to the related posts below](]([https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2010/11/the-trouble-with-anchor-links-in-email-newsletters/](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2010/11/the-trouble-with-anchor-links-in-email-newsletters/)), that would give me a pretty easy way to catch up on the updated topics I’m not watching yet that pique my interest without first leaving my email client.
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [2016年三月29日 10:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/6 "2016-03-29T10:05:16Z")
The suggestion is valid, but I’d like us to live with the [new granular mailing list mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/more-granular-mailing-list-mode/38107) for at least a couple of months before looking into other improvements.
I also have a feeling that the new combined emails could be extended to cover significant portions of the use case you’re trying to accommodate with the above.
For instance, topics could come with unsubscribe-buttons:
(by no means a final mockup)
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [2016年三月30日 02:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/7 "2016-03-30T02:09:48Z")
我相信这些综合更新会有很大帮助，但我认为上述建议是让 Discourse 对仅使用邮件的用户更加友好的关键。
根本的一点是要认识到，对于仅使用邮件的用户，我们希望：
- 使用摘要/综合更新或“新主题”通知来替代访问“最新”页面
- 使用“关注”状态替代“追踪”状态
这并不完全是一个单一的“功能”，因此我打算将其重新分类到 #Contribute > UX 中，并将标题改为“改善仅使用邮件的用户体验”。
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### Author:  [@anon82356247](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon82356247)
#### Post date: [2016年六月7日 02:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/8 "2016-06-07T02:53:57Z")
I don’t know if this should be a new topic, but:
I’ve enabled Mailing Listing mode for a daily digest, which I like alot, thanks! 👍
However, I still want to be able to Watch threads and get an individual email for any replies.
I note that I am seeing:
Does this mean all new replies will be in my digest or I will get individual emails?
BTW, I couldn’t find a “testing” category. Seems like that would be handy around here… (and should muted by default)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2016年六月7日 04:48 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improving-the-user-experience-for-email-only-users/41563/9 "2016-06-07T04:48:40Z")
Testing is [try.discourse.org](http://try.discourse.org), go nuts