Mbox importation, topic/thread creation + user accounts?

[mreach (M. Reacher)]

I have a large mbox importation from Yahoo Groups to execute (there are around 100 .mbox.00xxx files to import). First, I believe I’m to use the [import_scripts/mbox.rb](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/script/import_scripts/mbox.rb) for this, correct?

Secondly, I need to somehow attribute these posts in the threads with users in the system. There are several thousand users and 99% of them have not yet created accounts in Discourse. What is the method by which to go about associating these emails to accounts? Do I need to create unactivated accounts first in some fashion and then import the messages to their threads?

Just wanting to get a comprehensive overview before I dig in here.

[gerhard (Gerhard Schlager)]

You can follow Importing mailing lists (mbox, Listserv, Google Groups, emails, ...). Existing users will be matched by email address. New users will be created for non-existent email addresses. You can merge users (Rake task for merging users) after the import if some users used different email addresses in your Yahoo Groups.

I recommend trying it out with a backup of your current forum.