Use group messaging / name for `site contact username`

Feature
1

Now that “group messaging” is a feature (where multiple users can share the responsibility of a single inbox) …

Would it be possible to use a group to handle / replace the site contact username?

The value is usually a username like system.

This would allow multiple admins to handle:

  • Incoming messages from users in response to the initial welcome message
  • Notifications / messages regarding important system events - such as:
  • low space
  • download remote images being disabled.
12 Likes
2

I’ve got a client who seems to want this. What happens if you put a group name in as site contact?

In other news, site contact username doesn’t do any recommending, which seem dangerous.

3

Reviving this feature request, since I just discovered it while looking for a way for replies to automated messages to go to a group of people (e.g., staff or a guides group). Having the automated messages come from an individual makes the site more personal, which is good; however, having that same person as a single point of failure for timely response to users replying to automated messages is less than ideal.

Any chance site contact username now supports a group name? Or is there a better way to direct replies to automated messages to staff or a specific group?

4 Likes
4

Replying to myself… :slight_smile:

I just ran into this response to “Replying to welcome message does not notify staff members (bug?)” from @codinghorror:

This will not be an issue in 1.8 as new user welcome messages will come from discobot, which will refer people to the /about page if they wish to contact staff. We’re strongly moving away from having the automated welcome be considered any kind of human to respond to.

So, I’m going to assume that, while it would be nice for a group to see responses at the moment, future versions of Discourse won’t send replies to the site contact.

5

I’m just running into this now. We have a helpdesk group and would like to transition to sending all automated messages from this group. Replies would go to the group instead of to a single user. The advantage is that then anyone in the group can follow up.

This is part of our use of discourse as a ticket system.

1 Like
6

We have this functionality now, with this:

3 Likes