# Replacing Mailing lists: Email-In
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [2월 26, 2014, 6:24오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099 "2014-02-26T18:24:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 2:20오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/63 "2014-07-09T14:20:26Z")
> [@Drum](#):
>
> Is there any chance you have any experience with Discourse pulling in email via auto forwarding?
Not directly. We set up a dedicated (Gmail) account on our Google Apps service and have created several aliases for it in the Google Apps dashboard. So people are mailing in directly to it.
I’d think that the auto-forwarding would only work if the sender’s email address is preserved, and if it matches that of a valid user. If not, the mail would be rejected after Discourse polls the inbox. What do the forwarded messages look like in the inbox before Discourse goes to fetch them?
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 3:14오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/64 "2014-07-09T15:14:13Z")
@democracy psyched to see you here too. 😄 We at Kabissa have been using discourse as a replacement our drupal/organic groups/og\_mailinglist setup which was always half baked. Basically we’ve found that our discourse/google apps setup works much, much better! However, [discourse forums are so different from mailing lists](https://meta.discourse.org/t/forwarded-emails-and-email-in-topic-creation/15839/2) that we’re retraining ourselves to log into the site rather than hope that it will more fully replicate mailing list functionality. This is actually a Good Thing since it also creates more purposeful discussion over the long term and prevents everyone from being inundated with emails. But email still works very well to be notified and to give quick replies. Discourse is actually better than mailing lists with the ability to eg mention people to make sure they are notified, fork and move discussions, etc.
@downey thanks for the update on features and bugs - I haven’t looked at this closely for a month or two but am maintaining a (now out of date) [list of mailing list functionality and their status](http://discourse.kabissa.org/t/using-discourse-as-mailing-list-replacement/391) over on the kabissa forum. If you or anyone else would find it useful to contribute to that topic I’d appreciate it.
Other features that I am missing that [Steve and I discussed in the og\_mailinglist issue queue two years ago (!!)](https://www.drupal.org/node/1035930#comment-5770624) are better membership management and import/export of both users and content. The stuff I prioritized there is still important to me, and I think with discourse we’re well on our way:
> - improved presentation of discussion threads on the site including full support of file attachments
> - MBOX import/export features to allow moving discussion archives to other platforms.
> - CSV import/export features to allow migration of group members to/from other platforms
> - improved membership lists/member directory for exploring and contacting fellow group members, seeing what they are posting, when logged in last etc
> - improved membership management tools for group owners for inviting/adding/removing members
> - improved error reporting and handling when e.g. email is bounced because of bad from address
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 3:23오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/65 "2014-07-09T15:23:11Z")
Some progress is being made on these fronts:
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> - CSV import/export features to allow migration of group members to/from other platforms
> - improved membership lists/member directory for exploring and contacting fellow group members, seeing what they are posting, when logged in last etc
> - improved membership management tools for group owners for inviting/adding/removing members
> [@Improved Group Members Management](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-group-members-management/16768):
>
> Following up on the [bug that our Admin UI only shows up to 201 members for groups](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-seems-to-have-a-limit-of-201-members/11366), I’d like to propose the following changes to Group-Admin interface. allow group editing on user First, allow direct editing of Groups on User-Admin-Interface (seriously, how is that still missing?): Replacing the “primary group” feature with the select2-autosuggest for existing groups. I am still unsure about whether or not show the trust groups here, too (as they are not actually editable). And move …
> [@Sending bulk user invites](https://meta.discourse.org/t/sending-bulk-user-invites/16468):
>
> bookmark This guide explains how to invite multiple users to your Discourse instance using a bulk invite feature. person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator Inviting a large number of users to your Discourse instance can be time-consuming if done individually. Fortunately, Discourse offers a bulk invite feature that allows you to invite multiple users at once. This guide will walk you through the process of sending bulk invites. information_source It is not possible to in…
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### Author:  [@Drum](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Drum)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 5:55오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/66 "2014-07-09T17:55:11Z")
The sender’s email address (as far as I can tell) is indeed preserved, however it just isn’t posting, even though I’ve told Discourse to allow unknown users to email in (which is something I do have working in individual categories at least.) That’s why I’m stumped. Perhaps it’s a bug then?
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### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 6:21오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/67 "2014-07-09T18:21:34Z")
Hmm, could be. Beats me. 🙂
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### Author:  [@lake54](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lake54)
#### Post date: [7월 9, 2014, 10:01오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/68 "2014-07-09T22:01:21Z")
> [@downey](#):
>
> It’s still not possible for admins to customize email subject lines (or header, or anything) by category or for **users to filter incoming email notifications by category.**
I’m still in the process of getting ready to convince my organisation to switch to Discourse, so I haven’t explicitly tried this yet, but I believe muting categories achieves this objective - i.e. if they aren’t interested in a category, they mute it. Opt-out, as it were. I’ve just done a test on the prototype I’ve got running, so will see if that works or not.
_Update_: muting does suppress email notifications, so I guess that satisfies that requirement?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [10월 4, 2014, 11:37오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/69 "2014-10-04T11:37:17Z")
This is now implemented, closing
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [10월 4, 2014, 11:37오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/replacing-mailing-lists-email-in/13099/70 "2014-10-04T11:37:20Z")
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