The discussion revolves around some issues with staged users and their (in)ability to visit topics on a restricted access category. Sander78 points out that when an unknown user receives a notification by mail, they may not be able to access the topic due to forum closure or lack of access. Sander78 proposes a simple solution: having staged users receive custom copy in their mail notifications, removing the “Visit Topic” option and only allowing replies by mail. codinghorror and zogstrip agree with this proposal, and zogstrip has implemented the change.
Further discussion led to Sander78 suggesting the removal of the line “Reply to this email to respond” from mail notifications for staged users, as it may be obvious. However, fefrei disagrees, arguing that staged users may still be aware of the automated system behind the emails and may expect a “noreply” address. codinghorror suggests considering this point and potentially making changes on Monday.
Imagine an unknown user mailing to a category that has restricted access. One of the known users reply there, so the unknown user gets a notification by mail.
In that mail there is the line that says Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond. But when visiting that topic, two things can happen:
the forum is closed and the new user needs to login anyway
the forum is not closed, but the user has no access to the category, because he’s not in that group
For point 1, the new user should get some assistance to create a password. It’s totally not clear what to to there.
For point 2, maybe the user shouldn’t have the option to visit the topic at all.
Simplest solution: have staged users get custom copy in their mail notifications. No visit this topic, just reply by mail.
I just had an idea: it will now say only_reply_by_email: "Reply to this email to respond". But, isn’t that obvious for a staged user? I mean, imagine you put that line under every mail you send.
Maybe you can remove that whole line completely. Staged users have no awareness of the back office (Discourse) that is behind their emails.
I’m not sure I like the idea of removing that line.
In some sense, they do: The formatting of these mails make it clear that they were sent by some automatic system. It is so common for these systems to have noreply@...-addresses that I usually automatically think I cannot simply reply by mail as soon as a mail doesn’t look hand-composed.
