# MOSS Roadmap - Mailing lists
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [December 8, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432 "2015-12-08T17:37:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/1 "2015-12-08T17:37:28Z")
### 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](http://blog.discourse.org/2015/12/discourse-selected-for-mozilla-open-source-support-program/) 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 Discourse company will hire one or more developers on behalf of the MOSS grant to work on these enhancements in conjunction with the core team.
We expect all critical tasks on our roadmap to be completed by July 2016, coinciding with the release of Discourse v1.6. With all assignments successfully completed, Discourse will be on-par-with or surpass the feature set of mailing list programs such as GNU Mailman or PHPlist. A user should be able to join, participate and leave group discussions run through Discourse without ever having to log in to the Discourse web interface.
### How is solving this problem going to help Discourse?
Improving online discussions is our bread and butter. See: [Civilized Discourse Construction Kit](http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-construction-kit/)
Mailing lists in particular is a form of communication that we consider outdated. Not much more can be said about mailing lists that hasn’t already been said. In short, they don’t scale well with growing communities, and as a result they can significantly hamper the adoption of new technologies that ought to have touched thousands or even millions of people instead of just a few hundred. Also, they’re generally not very export-friendly, which is not good practice for the modern, open web.
We acknowledge the fact that for some people e-mail is still their most effective workflow, but instead of limiting our communications platform to e-mail we want e-mail to be one among several equally valid workflows (e-mail, browser, and - should someone ever choose to make them - native apps).
### TODOs
(Do note that not that some features listed below would become stretch goals rather than hard targets)
✅ = Done
🔨 = WIP
💭 = Tentative
🚫 = Discarded (for the time being)
**Mailing list feature parity:**
- ✅ Easier unsubscribe options
[Improved unsubscribe workflow](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-unsubscribe-workflow/45931)
- ✅ Email styling (finished just prior to MOSS)
[Customizable Email Templates](https://meta.discourse.org/t/customizable-email-templates/35818)
- ✅ Better email context
[Forcing email context - input requested - #67 by codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/t/forcing-email-context-input-requested/25577/67)
- ✅ Use display name for email
[Use display name for email if possible](https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-display-name-for-email-if-possible/34474)
- ✅ Get notified by new topics only
[Get notified of new topics, but not posts - #60 by eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/t/get-notified-of-new-topics-but-not-posts/12809/60)
- ✅ Improved inbound parsing
- ✅ Attachments support
- ✅ Threaded replies by e-mail
[Thread detection when responding via email - Chef Forums Feedback - Chef Questions](https://discourse.chef.io/t/thread-detection-when-responding-via-email/7329)
- 🔨 Read-only web archive of active mailing list.
[MOSS Roadmap - Mailing lists - #9 by sam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/9)
- 💭 Subscribe to topics/categories by e-mail without signing in
Just like “Email updates to me” in Google Groups.
- 💭 More context in e-mail message body: “You received this message because…”
[Subscription emails should carry more context in message body - #2 by downey](https://meta.discourse.org/t/subscription-emails-should-carry-more-context-in-message-body/21820/2)
- 💭 Queue up bounced e-mails instead of dismissing them
[Moderate emails which would normally bounce?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moderate-emails-which-would-normally-bounce/30331)
- 💭 Option for plain text e-mail
**Increased engagement:**
- ✅ Support abridged e-mails
[More granular mailing list mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/more-granular-mailing-list-mode/38107)
[Looking for an Abridged email, to recap all activity since the last email](https://meta.discourse.org/t/looking-for-an-abridged-email-to-recap-all-activity-since-the-last-email/33239)
- ✅ Send email notifications in user’s preferred language
[Variable default interface language for new users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/variable-default-interface-language-for-new-users/33741)
- ✅ Interactive e-mails: Let users Like content via their mail (see WooThemes example)
[Ability to "like" / +1 a post via email reply](https://meta.discourse.org/t/ability-to-like-1-a-post-via-email-reply/24135)
- 🔨 Improved “Weekly Summaries” (maybe including significant badges etc.)
[What are some simple ways to improve digest emails](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-some-simple-ways-to-improve-digest-emails/33224)
[Add richer individualized data to digest - TripAdvisor style](https://meta.discourse.org/t/newsletter-per-individual-tripadvisor-style/27713)
- 💭 Custom e-mail footers
[Customize email notification header and footer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/customize-email-notification-header-and-footer/27927)
[Per-Category email footers?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/per-category-email-footers/33886)
[Email footer support](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-footer-support/27381)
General bug fixing
- ✅ E-mail signature not being stripped out properly (finished just prior to MOSS)
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/html-email-signature-not-being-stripped-out-of-notification-reply/21351](https://meta.discourse.org/t/html-email-signature-not-being-stripped-out-of-notification-reply/21351)
Further reading:
- [https://meta.discourse.org/t/convince-me-to-transition-over-from-google-groups/31221](https://meta.discourse.org/t/convince-me-to-transition-over-from-google-groups/31221)
- [Feedback from a community about Mailing List feature](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feedback-from-a-community-about-mailing-list-feature/27695)
- [The Chef Mailing List – Noah Kantrowitz](https://coderanger.net/chef-mailing-list/)
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/3 "2015-12-11T01:34:34Z")
I think @zogstrip is getting to some of these as part of the current work around email support portal. Can you cross off any items that you complete here Régis?
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### Author:  [@modius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/modius)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/4 "2015-12-11T02:52:32Z")
> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> 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.
What is a MOSS grant?
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/5 "2015-12-11T02:56:36Z")
I will add a link back to the blog entry there.
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2015, 11:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/6 "2015-12-11T11:42:18Z")
### Want to work on some of these features?
[@plugin\_authors](https://meta.discourse.org/groups/plugin_authors) & contributors, if you feel comfortable with one or more of the tasks listed above, send a message to @erlend_sh to let us know you’re interested and we can sort out the details from there.
We’re only taking on 1 or 2 part time developers for this, but just knowing you’re looking for the occasional freelance work means we’ll keep you on our radar for future gigs 😉
---
### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/7 "2015-12-11T14:42:58Z")
I just crossed off one bug that was fixed by my [recent change](https://meta.discourse.org/t/better-email-reply-parsing-email/36495). 😊
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### Author:  [@wesochuck](https://meta.discourse.org/u/wesochuck)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/8 "2015-12-13T00:30:12Z")
- Are there still issues with inline replies that need worked out?
- [https://meta.discourse.org/t/reply-by-email-requires-reply-at-top/16983/27](https://meta.discourse.org/t/reply-by-email-requires-reply-at-top/16983/27)
- or [Text of forwarded emails don't show up in posts - #14 by techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/t/text-of-forwarded-emails-dont-show-up-in-posts/23155/14)
- [Cross posting to multiple “lists”](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-cant-a-topic-be-placed-into-multiple-categories/1883) on the same “instance” is also something I’ve seen many mail communities do. So you may want to consider if that should be on the MOSS feature list.
- When using category mailing list, provide an option to [notify the sender when their message is posted](https://meta.discourse.org/t/send-me-an-email-for-every-new-post-also-notifies-for-self-posts/27209).
- I think this is really important for folks that are used to old school style mailing lists. If they don’t see an email for the message they sent to the list, then they assume that it never got posted.
- Not totally on topic, but I think some option to [email notify on new topics those who are tracking categories](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-for-first-messages-only/35143/10) should also be considered.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 9:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/9 "2015-12-16T09:27:34Z")
One feature I would like us to work on is having Discourse act as a “web archive” for an active mailing list. This simplifies migration off mailing lists and allows us to live side by side with existing software and help many open source projects out there.
For example:
Say we could simply run a simple script to download all the mbox files here: [PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-general](http://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-general/) and then import into a Discourse instance.
[PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL Mailing Lists: pgsql-general](http://www.postgresql.org/list/pgsql-general/) could simply become a readonly Discourse forum.
Then all we would need to do is add a mode where every post to the mailing list is also added to Discourse.
Even though a lot of the lego is in place to achieve this, it lacks a lot of polish. It would be super awesome for this kind of task to be both well documented and simple to enable.
Imagine if you could just enter a single web address into your Discourse instance (pointing at mailman archives) and it took care of all of the magic for you.
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### Author:  [@carlokok](https://meta.discourse.org/u/carlokok)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 9:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/10 "2015-12-16T09:44:07Z")
Isn’t that more of a feature that could better fit in a plugin than core discourse?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 9:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/11 "2015-12-16T09:48:43Z")
Importers are all core, see [discourse/script/import\_scripts at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/script/import_scripts) similarly a bridge or bridging scripts can live in core.
Entering a URL to magically make everything work may not be core, I am not sure, but most of the code in my above “imagineering” session would live in core.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 11:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/12 "2015-12-16T11:32:41Z")
Even as a partial import this is hugely important and helpful in seeding a new Discourse with users and content.. just forward a few giant email threads in and bam:
- you have a bunch of staged users ready for people to join and take ownership of their accounts (via email address)
- you have a bunch of useful, real, content on the site
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### Author:  [@carlokok](https://meta.discourse.org/u/carlokok)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/13 "2015-12-16T12:21:21Z")
ah. That makes sense now.
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### Author:  [@almereyda](https://meta.discourse.org/u/almereyda)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/14 "2015-12-23T20:04:53Z")
@thoka Should we document the current adaptation to any of these currently missing features by linking dummy/robot discourse users to mailing lists, thus enabling targeted notifications?
@all Does this also involve diff messages of edited postings as HackPad sends them?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/15 "2015-12-23T20:24:32Z")
I had a recipe back in the day for doing this by importing mailman-generated mbox archives into fudforum. It worked incredibly well, just as you describe. A quick google search turmed up an oldish stackoverflow topic about it that explains it reasonably well.
>
I also am very interested in the staged users concept - is this discussed anywhere in any detail already on meta? Saw a mention of it in the below topic but when I tested it a few weeks back I saw no sign of staged users or an explanation of how it would work.
> [@Discourse as a private email support portal](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-a-private-email-support-portal/34444):
>
> Purpose We would like to set it up so Discourse can act as a private email support portal for a team. In this mode a single email address will be mapped to a category, all incoming mail will create new messages in that category that can be viewed by all the users with permission on the category. Users will be automatically provisioned as emails come in. Advantages over central email box Historically we have used a central email box for our team “support” this has proven to have quite a few draw…
Seems to me that, if staged accounts were to work, then we’re not far away from making this happen. w00t!
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### Author:  [@modius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/modius)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/16 "2016-01-02T20:23:58Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> Importers are all core, see [discourse/script/import\_scripts at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/script/import_scripts) similarly a bridge or bridging scripts can live in core.
Would love to see an importer for Google Groups mailing lists too, but scraping out Groups content looks to be a bit messy.
There is [a bash script for generating an mbox from a Google Group](https://github.com/icy/google-group-crawler) which works with a bit of fiddling (need a cookie file to get emails). It also has options for picking up new posts which helps in mirroring, though i haven’t tried it. Perhaps that would be an approach if mbox imports were rock solid and repeatable.
Also, would the mbox approach allow for importing into an existing forum? Something that might be of interest to our community is merging our existing Discourse forum, with an existing Google Group.
---
### Author:  [@amirmc](https://meta.discourse.org/u/amirmc)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/17 "2016-01-03T21:17:42Z")
Being able to merge multiple mailing lists into one Discourse forum would be interesting too. For example, importing (or even mirroring?) them as different categories.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/19 "2016-02-12T19:16:37Z")
I got this feedback from a member today relating to discourse and attachments:
> Tobias, is there a different way to attach docs on discourse? this function only allows me to save the document, not open it…For a couple of Vivek’s e-mails, I’ve saved the document, and then gotten pulled away, ans then never opened it… can there be an “open in another tab” option? Or even a kind of attachment like in google, where the pop up box would have an “open” option?
We use gmail, and I am assuming she’s hoping for something more gmail-like.
The first request here I think is for “mailing list mode” to actually attach the file to the message. I hope this can be added to the roadmap, at least as an admin setting.
The second is more of a “wondering”. Is there not a way to indicate in the mailing that a link is to an attachment, which email clients can then use to offer different ways to access said attachment?
[ ](https://20somethingkidsand1kookyteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/img330.jpg)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/20 "2016-02-12T21:04:27Z")
I am not clear what you’re talking about here. Can you be more specific? What’s being attached? Images?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/21 "2016-02-12T21:13:26Z")
usually it’s .doc files and other work-related documents. sorry, i just included the picture for fun. 😊
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432/22 "2016-02-12T21:17:21Z")
I don’t really see a practical use for the request – if the user can’t figure out how to open a downloaded file, they are going to be in a world of hurt sooner or later.. they need to learn how to do that.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moss-roadmap-mailing-lists/36432.md?page=2)