Sync Discourse Users in WordPress Database

Product Support

AI-generated summary

BrianC is seeking to sync Discourse users into the WordPress database for use with the Mailster newsletter plugin, without requiring users to access WordPress directly. He asks whether explicit consent is needed for sending non-marketing, instructional emails or if including it in the Terms of Service (ToS) suffices — noting users can always opt out via email. He also inquires if users created in WordPress are automatically removed when their Discourse accounts are deleted or anonymized. MihirR responds that a ToS clause can serve as consent, and references a meta.discourse.org thread for enforcing ToS acceptance. Regarding synchronization, MihirR clarifies that the WP Discourse plugin does not natively support bi-directional sync — deleting or anonymizing a Discourse user won’t remove the corresponding WordPress user. Brian also mentions preferring his Mailcow VPS over Mailchimp for cost and deliverability reasons.

1

I am a bit confused about using the WP Discourse Plugin and SSO. My goal is to register users with Discourse and use Discourse for logins and other account access. My only real goal for WordPress is to have the Discourse users created in the WordPress Database so I can use by newsletter plugin Mailster to send helpful how to type emails, not marketing. I will not want my Discourse users to ever access WordPress directly.

I am trying to think through how this can best work. Is it required to have users directly agree to receive website usage emails or can this be in TOS. They can always opt out of the emails from the email. Not sure if I need direct consent to receive how to accomplish best. Maybe a pop up or similar. My Discourse is community.website.com and WordPress resides on website.com

Using Mailchimp with Discourse plugin seems like it can get costly. I have a Mailcow VPS that works great and gets 10/10 on MailTester with all DKIM and Dmark setup correctly.

If the user is created in WordPress Database, is it also removed if Discourse user is deleted or anonymized?

Thanks!

2

You can add a clause to your ToS specifying that users who register consent to receive certain communications via email. Also, you can check out this.

WP Discourse plugin doesn’t natively handle bi-directional synchronization for such cases so deleting one would not delete the other.