# Notification email cannot be the same as reply by email
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** email
**Created:** [2015年五月15日 03:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840 "2015-05-15T03:34:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stroupaloop](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stroupaloop)
#### Post date: [2015年五月15日 03:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/1 "2015-05-15T03:34:14Z")
I’ve setup the reply by email address settings as listed in the thread below, EXCEPT I’m unable to change the reply by email address
**NOTE:** I’ve setup everything else according to the post, to include the correct polling port (995), polling host ([pop.gmail.com](http://pop.gmail.com)) and the accurate username/password combo (plus SSL enabled).
The field contains the following
replies+%{reply\_key}@example.com
When I try to change it to
team+%{reply\_key}@custom.com
I receive the following error
I’m currently receiving a polling error via AWS SES (our transactional email service) every 5m (POP3 polling frequency) and I’m guessing it’s because the reply by email address is incorrect, BUT I can’t change it. Help?
> [@Set up reply by email with POP3 polling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-reply-via-email-support/14003/):
>
> So you’d like to set up reply via email support for your Discourse forum. mega Reply via email is pre-configured and enabled by default on all [discourse.org](http://discourse.org) hosted sites. The guide below only applies to those self-hosting. Good news! Unlike outgoing email, which is completely unsuitable for typical consumer mail services like GMail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc, incoming reply via-email tends to be extremely low volume. Unless you have a truly massive forum with a zillion people replying to no…
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### Author:  [@stroupaloop](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stroupaloop)
#### Post date: [2015年五月15日 16:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/2 "2015-05-15T16:24:03Z")
Verified bug …
I can add @gmail.com BUT not a @custom.gov
Any idea on the time horizon to fix? Thanks!
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### Author:  [@jaming](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jaming)
#### Post date: [2015年五月15日 16:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/3 "2015-05-15T16:53:42Z")
Is the email you are trying to change it to the same as the SiteSetting.notification\_email?
For example:
SiteSetting.notification\_email = [foo@bar.com](mailto:foo@bar.com) and you are trying to set it to “foo+%{reply\_key}@bar.com”
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### Author:  [@stroupaloop](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stroupaloop)
#### Post date: [2015年五月15日 17:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/4 "2015-05-15T17:41:42Z")
Hey @jaming that isn’t the issue. The issue is that the ranges of accepted domains in that field box doesn’t include .gov ☹
However, I assume, as long as the transactional email service (e.g. SES, Mandrill) can accept incoming email, it doesn’t matter if the notification\_email email is the same as the reply by email address or not
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2015年五月16日 01:12 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/5 "2015-05-16T01:12:29Z")
Weird can you reproduce this @techapj?
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### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [2015年五月16日 06:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/6 "2015-05-16T06:41:23Z")
Okay, I can repro this case, and it’s not specific to `.gov` domain.
@jaming is correct, this is because `notification email` setting is same as `reply by email address`.
Let’s say I set `notification email` to “[team@discourse.org](mailto:team@discourse.org)”, now I can’t set `reply by email address` to “team+%{reply\_key}@discourse.org”, it will generate error as per this code:
>
So, if the `notification email` is set to “[team@custom.gov](mailto:team@custom.gov)”, then it’s not possible to set “team+%{reply\_key}@custom.gov” as `reply by email address`.
Techincally it’s not a bug, it’s a feature which @zogstrip added via:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/f7d2fc05244d20c05e8c747c1e6ea66331d60d05](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/f7d2fc05244d20c05e8c747c1e6ea66331d60d05)
So I would recommend adding another email (perhaps `reply+%{reply_key}@custom.gov`) for `reply by email address` setting.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2015年五月16日 21:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/7 "2015-05-16T21:13:12Z")
Can we improve the error message in this case? I agree this is an important safety feature otherwise @stroupaloop would have set up a cascading reply disaster, a sort of … loop 😉
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [2015年五月17日 04:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/8 "2015-05-17T04:26:58Z")
Uh, I’m pretty sure there used to be a useful error message there. I think that’s a regression.
edit: yes, definitely a regression
>
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### Author:  [@techAPJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/techAPJ)
#### Post date: [2015年五月17日 08:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/9 "2015-05-17T08:49:08Z")
Yes, there was a regression due to [this commit](https://github.com/techAPJ/discourse/commit/84b84a9d7ca52373756fadd45a27cb12082b8ccb). Fixed via:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/3483](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/3483)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2015年五月17日 20:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notification-email-cannot-be-the-same-as-reply-by-email/28840/10 "2015-05-17T20:30:51Z")