# Option to force email context
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [November 21, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401 "2014-11-21T19:45:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lake54](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lake54)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401/1 "2014-11-21T19:45:52Z")
Some users on our forum would like the option to force an amount of context in the notification emails.
I suggest this is implemented as a user-configurable option with a site default (shipped as 0).
The current situation as I understand it is that context is included if the user hasn’t received that post in an email yet. Therefore, if they receive every email (mailing list mode), they’ll never get context. This _can_ be confusing if they delete emails after they’ve read them, because there’s nothing to refer back to if the new post references something in that previous post.
This is also related to the [Reply by email requires reply at top](https://meta.discourse.org/t/reply-by-email-requires-reply-at-top/16983) feature request, if users include quotes to provide _some_ context, then the email processing breaks.
The option would force Discourse to include the previous # of posts made in the topic.
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401/2 "2014-12-18T06:16:43Z")
Glad to be directed here, as I had missed it when I encountered this issue and [wrote my own post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/email-posts-context-setting-ignored-when-sending-notifications-of-new-posts-immediately/23196/4) about people lacking context in email notifications.
A user-configurable option would work for us. But what I was actually talking about is the head-scratch-inducing fact that even when you have the admin setting “email post context” set to say 5 posts it does not show the 5 previous posts to people who have asked to receive every email.
This is the setting I am talking about:
I can understand that gmail users or users of clients that display threaded views of emails would not want to see this extra info, but some of my users have complained about the lack of context. I guess they are used to scrolling down to see what everyone else has been saying before replying, rather than referring to previously received emails or scrolling up to see the previous emails in threaded views.
@riking explains this is because the user has already received the messages. Makes sense, but not for the people who still want to see the context in every notification they get from discourse.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401/3 "2015-04-05T15:54:34Z")
I’m looking for this option as well on my hosted Discourses.
it’s duplicated here:
> [@Forcing email context - input requested](https://meta.discourse.org/t/forcing-email-context-input-requested/25577/):
>
> I’ve added the ability for users to enable the forcing of email context in their notifications and sent a pull request to Discourse, however it requires more discussion of the feature on meta, the reason for this post. To answer @sam’s questions on the PR: I am pretty uneasy with this change, its a very confusing setting to be adding to users. Personal opinion - I don’t think it’s confusing. The option is labelled “Always include previous posts in notifications” which to me explains the p…
Hope to see some more forward motion.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:47am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401/4 "2016-02-19T04:47:50Z")
completed via
> [@Configuring whether previous replies are included in notification emails](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-control-previous-replies-in-emails/39834):
>
> bookmark This is a guide for configuring whether previous replies are included in your notification emails. person_raising_hand Required user level: Users & Administrators When Discourse sends out email notifications, it can include a block of “Previous Replies”. Summary This guide will cover how to configure your email notification settings to include or exclude previous replies. Configuring email settings in user profile You can control whether previous r…
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/option-to-force-email-context/22401/5 "2016-02-19T04:53:54Z")