# Staged users are emailed a link to visit topics in private categories they can't access **URL:** \ **Category:** Bug\ **Created:** [25. Februar 2016 um 11:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/staged-users-are-emailed-a-link-to-visit-topics-in-private-categories-they-cant-access/40151 "2016-02-25T11:13:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1 ## AI-generated summary A user is experiencing an issue with a private email support portal on Discourse v1.5.0.beta11 +164. When a staged user (someone who emails the support portal and is not a registered user) receives an email reply from a Discourse user, the email contains a "Visit Topic" link to the private category topic. However, the staged user cannot access the topic, resulting in confusion and potential re-emailing. The suggested fixes are to either remove the "Visit Topic" link for staged users or sanitize the emails to make them appear as regular emails, not coming from Discourse. This issue is a duplicate of [cpradio](/t/-/40151/2)'s linked post.
**Author:** ![wityr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bcef8e/32.png) [@wityr](https://meta.discourse.org/u/wityr)\ **Post date:** [25. Februar 2016 um 11:13 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/staged-users-are-emailed-a-link-to-visit-topics-in-private-categories-they-cant-access/40151/1 "2016-02-25T11:13:55Z")
Not actually sure if this is a bug or a UX issue. Please move the post as needed. Use case is a [private email support portal.](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-as-a-private-email-support-portal/34444) We’re on v1.5.0.beta11 +164 We have a private category that a handful of users can access. The general public can send emails to info@foo.bar and they are posted in our _public emails_ category. When one of the discourse users replies, it gets posted in the topic, and the member of the public (now a staged user) gets the reply in an email. This all works well. The problem is that the email to the staged user contains “Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond”, where Visit Topic is a link to the topic they unknowingly created on discourse. They can’t actually visit the topic because it in in a private group, instead they get sent to a “You need to log in to see that topic.” page. Further the random member of the public thinks they emailed a regular email address, and expects a reasonably regular email response. We’ve had some people be so confused that they send a fresh email because they can’t log in to reply to us. I think the simple fix is to remove that “Visit Topic” link for staged users. There are still links to the user profile of whichever discourse user wrote the reply, but I don’t think most people will click these, and if they do it isn’t going to complicate replying to the email. A better fix, as far as the email support portal usage goes, would be to sanitize the emails going to staged users so they don’t appear to be coming from discourse at all. ---
**Author:** ![cpradio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cpradio/32/4970_2.png) [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)\ **Post date:** [25. Februar 2016 um 13:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/staged-users-are-emailed-a-link-to-visit-topics-in-private-categories-they-cant-access/40151/2 "2016-02-25T13:30:12Z")
This is a dup of > [@Some issues with staged users and their (in)ability to visit topics](https://meta.discourse.org/t/some-issues-with-staged-users-and-their-in-ability-to-visit-topics/40084): > > 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 … ---
**Author:** ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)\ **Post date:** [25. Februar 2016 um 13:38 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/staged-users-are-emailed-a-link-to-visit-topics-in-private-categories-they-cant-access/40151/3 "2016-02-25T13:38:56Z")