Email to/from forum

Poke Alex

Are there any plans to create a Vanilla extension or update that would give users the ability to add or read forum posts via email?

Mark

I have no plans to write that extension, but I'm sure someone would like to do it :)

Ben

I'd quite like being able to send an email, from "The Forum" to all users; or even just a button on a user page to send an email from the forum to a user reminding them of their password and the forum's existence if they haven't been posting recently.
Maybe this could be added to the CleanUp extension?

Minisweeper

sending their password in plaintext to an email address that might be outdated probably isnt the best idea. That and its impossible because you couldnt get it out of the database to begin with. Have you forgotten us type emails could be cool though

Ben

well, an ordinary reminder that the forum's actually there would be welcome.
some of my user's signed up but haven't actually posted....

the aloha

tell those users to get the atom feed from your forum. it'll make them be part of this century.

Poke Alex

Getting an atom feed is fantastic, but only unidirectionally. I'm trying to find a good replacement for a Yahoo! group, with a better web interface (read: forum/feed) for the younger/savvy users, and yet an email interface for our stodgy old I-don't-want-to-change-anything users. I have a substantial number of users in the latter category that I can't risk alienating by forcing them into a forum. Additionally, many of my users use a "digest only" subscription method - meaning they receive a summary once a day of the day's activity. These users are also loathe to switch their system. I realize Vanilla may not be the best option for what I want - but most online forum packages don't really support email posting gracefully, whether by default or through an extension/module. I figured I could bring it up here since Vanilla is still on the ground floor, so to speak, and easily customizable by those who know that type of thing. (As beautiful as it would be to force everyone to join "this century", in the real world, where the internet is used by anyone who can click a mouse, that just isn't realistic.)

Ben

@ the aloha

unfortunately, this is probably not an option as most of my users wouldn't understand what an atom feed is

the aloha

hopefully, longhorn will change the situation as it is right now since it is supposed to have rss capability.

Mark

Okay, can everyone stop telling new members that their ideas are silly?

I read this thread like so:

"I want to get shoes with laces. Does anyone know where I can get some shoelaces?"

"Shoelaces are so last year. You should be using velcro."

"Velcro blows. You should be wearing thongs."

"Thongs? Screw that. Barefoot is the new shoe."

The bottom line is that barefoot rocks, thongs can be very comfortable, velcro is extremely handy, and shoelaces are a classic that should never go away.

See what I'm saying?

nathan

haha

Minisweeper

Well if i had any idea how to do this i would...i assume it would rely on either a personalised mailserver daemon or a cronjob which checked an account every X minutes and put stuff into the database? And then there'd need to be fairly strict formatting to make it understandable by the computer? Hmmm...

techy

I would include a Mail Whisper option, to send messages outside the forum

Minisweeper

well yeah, sending them isnt so hard i dont think.

Poke Alex

I think, in my case, the ability to receive posts via email would be more important than the ability to send them. I always thought Mail2Forum for phpBB was an interesting add-on, closest to what I wanted (except for the fact that it's for phpBB). Users can subscribe to a particular category and receive all messages posted in that category. It sounds a bit invasive for a discussion-heavy board, but for our group it's usually one message per thread to announce events and things like that. I've considered migrating to phpBB for awhile but find it unwieldy at best so I've been hoping for something simpler and happier.

jsanders

having a script receive email is usually very complicated. sending mail is super easy; php has all of the functions built in. to receive mail, you have to get the server to cooperate, and php may or may not be able to handle the kind of code that the server would request, since php is called by apache. most implementations of this use something like perl (which can be executed via command line) to update the db with the info provided by the email, as well as something like qmail that can direct mail to an address to a script. an alternative, though not useful in this case, is usually that the server sends an email with a one-time-link, which, once clicked, updates the database.

sherlock

I agree with Poke Alex -- the ability to make new posts by email is not all that important. But in the case of the group I support, the ability to notify members of new posts by email is critical. Perhaps Vanilla is not the solution for us. We're trying to replace a Yahoo group with a customized, in-house solution.

Minisweeper

I'm reasonably certain that adding mail alerts to vanilla would not be at all difficult for anyone with an understanding of object orientated php. Unfortunately thats not me.

cmi

I would even pay for such a extension ;o) !

Minisweeper

how much?

nathan

you gunna actually do it mini?