Mailing list features

[tophee (Christoph)]

@wakama

It is really hard to understand what are the actual features and how they work.

You are definitely not alone. I think there are two main reasons why it still takes some effort to figure out if and how to use Discourse as a mailing-list replacement:

1. this feature is still very much under development
2. although discourse can in many circumstances replace a classic mailing list, it requires a different mode of thinking, first on the part of the admin and then on the part of the users. Perhaps the most evident example is this: if you/your users believe it is a good thing (or it is for whatever reason required) that everyone receives every message (as is the case on mailing list) then Discourse is probably perhaps not the right way to go (unless you force every user into mailinglist mode, but what would be the point?)

So, in order to avoid frustration, I think the best way to approach the subject (and ultimately to answer the questions in the OP) is to

a) try to get an idea of the current state of discussion regarding email features in Discourse by reading as many email related topics as possible (even the ones that don’t appear to be about mailing lists in particular because my impression is that it is difficult to separate “mailing list emails” from other emails sent by discourse.
b) be open to rethink your approach to email lists, otherwise you will probably dismiss Discourse as unsuitable too soon. In the end, you may have to dismiss it anyway if your users won’t tag along, but that is something different than not even you seeing the benefits.

Here are some topics that I found useful in that respect (I don’t claim this list to be comprehensive in any way):

MOSS Roadmap - Mailing lists

Problem statement Some web-users strongly prefer communicating via e-mail, others have no other medium at their disposal due to lack of up-to-date technology or a fast enough internet connection. With this MOSS grant we aim to enhance Discourse with several individual-but-related features that will make the software easier to use via e-mail, effectively enhancing accessibility and engagement for the segment of users to whom the web-based (JavaScript) interface is not an ideal option. The Disco…

Discourse vs. email -- Pros & Cons

I hope I selected the right category for my discussion. Here it is: I want to introduce Discourse at work. I work in scientific research and I feel Discourse can help us organize things better. Before I do, I want to be prepared for inevitable questions about the “use case” for Discourse. Questions such as (but not limited to): Why do we need Discourse? We are using email right now and that keeps people informed. What advantages can we expect from using Discourse? What does it bring th…

Why use Discourse instead of a email mailing list?

Continuing the discussion from Discourse vs. email – Pros & Cons: Comments welcome! When should we use Discourse instead of plain email or a mailing list? Discourse excels at group conversations. Email is still great for 1-to-1 and 1-to-a-few exchanges. But when these conversations attract even more people and go on for a extended period of time, email chains become increasingly unwieldy. Mailing lists were invented to remedy these issues, but it was a bit like trying to build better horse…

Make members of a group watch a category by default

We have a private category, limited to a particular opt-in group of Discourse members for our organization. Say it’s “staff” – it’s not actually, but it’s along those lines. I want to make sure that all staff receive prompt notifications of discussions in that private category. We encourage them to set their category settings to “watching” but I don’t think many of them have. Under the category’s security settings, when I say “staff can create/reply/see” I’d love it if there were a way to sa…

Apply "mailing list mode" per category

I have multiple users who want to treat some categories within Discourse as “mailing lists” meaning they want emails for ALL activity within these categories. But they only want emails outside these categories under certain conditions (“Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic”). Our forums have user sections and developer sections. We would use this so developers can always get emails notifications for “developer” categories, …

https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-a-category-perhaps-the-best-kind-of-mailing-list-mode/27507

I think it was especially the latter two topics that I found particularly enlightening and which give some indications as to what might be possible in the future. In brief, if I remember correctly, the tenor was that there should be some form of category based (rather than universal) mailing list mode and my impression is that that will be the closest you can get to classic mailing lists (if that is what you want). Of course, you can have that already now, but only if you see the whole forum as your mailinglist.