Invitation - Send by email confusing behavior/texts

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around confusing wording and behavior in the ‘Invite members’ feature, particularly regarding the ‘Send by email’ option. tvavrda initially found the ‘Send by email’ label misleading, as it didn’t clearly indicate that entering an email would both restrict access and potentially send an invitation. supermathie clarified that the option appears only after entering an email, explaining the functionality. tvavrda agreed but emphasized the ambiguity, noting the field’s dual role (restriction and potential email send) makes the label unclear. ella acknowledged the feedback and updated the label. tvavrda responded that the updated text still doesn’t fully convey the dual purpose, suggesting a more descriptive label like ‘Invitation and/or restriction e-mail/domain’ might be necessary, though acknowledging it could be cumbersome.

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Clicking on the Invite link in the sidebar pops up this dialog. What does the “send by email” indicate? There is nothing about sending an e-mail inside.

The image shows a user interface for inviting members to a site via a link that expires in 90 days, with an option to send it by email, highlighted by a red box. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a user interface for inviting members to a site via a link that expires in 90 days, with an option to send it by email, highlighted by a red box. (Captioned by AI)1008×464 26 KB

EDIT: Now I see there is if you fill in the Restrict to (optional) e-mail. I guess that is a confusing title.

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At first no:

This image shows an "Invite members" screen with options for email restriction, maximum usage, expiration date, arriving topic, optional groups, and options to create a link or cancel. (Captioned by AI)
This image shows an "Invite members" screen with options for email restriction, maximum usage, expiration date, arriving topic, optional groups, and options to create a link or cancel. (Captioned by AI)712×728 26.6 KB

but if you enter an email address, you are given that option:

The image shows an "Invite members" interface with fields to restrict access, specify an expiration date, choose a topic, select groups, write a custom message, and options to create a link or send an email. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows an "Invite members" interface with fields to restrict access, specify an expiration date, choose a topic, select groups, write a custom message, and options to create a link or send an email. (Captioned by AI)698×859 32.5 KB

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3

Yes, therefore I rephrased my complaint. At least the title of the email address field is misleading. It doesn’t give any cues that it will be used as the invitation email address. I just tried it out of a curiosity after writing this topic.

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6

Thanks for the feedback! We’ve updated the label here:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/31028

1 Like
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Hi @ella, for me it still does not indicate that an actual e-mail will be sent to anyone if I enter it. I think it’s a problem of a double-use field (in this case triple use – I enter a domain and it is just a restriction, I enter e-mail and it is a restriction but I might also decide to send an invitation to it. And I am not sure if it is possible to just send an invitation without making a restriction but that is maybe not needed. So just finding the right text might not be enough.

So to be precise it would have to be something like: Invitation and/or restriction e-mail/domain. But you can feel it is cumbersome. But that’s what it actually is.