Reply by Email

Cory Booth

Well-known member
Many "bug" tracking applications use it...
Would it be possible to implement a "Reply by Email" so users could actually just hit reply to a froum email and have it added to the forum as a post? I know the arguments - it would drive down traffic - but.... I would truly pay top dime for a forum encorporating this feature... (goes back to Mobile/WAP support as well)....
 
Upvote 46
I doubt this would be included in the core product but as a mod i can see this happening but can lead to spam etc.

If someone gets your hidden blogger email that you can send to to have it posted then it leads to spam.
 
I would love to see this done really well in version 2.

After working on support system tickets for a while dealing with email you tend to reply to things too. Going back to a forum and going through your email, you sometimes click reply, realizing a second later: Duh.

This has my vote :)
 
I would never use it, nor allow it on our forum to be enabled. Even if only real non-spam people could use it, it would allow for yet another avenue for members with behavioral issues. In addition it the entire concept is a bit more advanced than what normal forum members are used to.

I am really unclear on what % XF buyers would want this as stock.
 
Avoiding spam wouldn't be a real problem if only replies are allowed (you could build a special Message ID and look at the in-reply-to-header. As this could be a special user right you could define who can use this.
 
I would never use it, nor allow it on our forum to be enabled. Even if only real non-spam people could use it, it would allow for yet another avenue for members with behavioral issues. In addition it the entire concept is a bit more advanced than what normal forum members are used to.

I am really unclear on what % XF buyers would want this as stock.

I bet its a small minority. There is a hack on vb.org for this, but looks like it has been abandoned.
 
I would like to have this. And since bounced email management is needed, XenForo needs to be able to extract email from an email inbox anyway. So its a very small leap from that function, to this function.
 
I would like to have this. And since bounced email management is needed, XenForo needs to be able to extract email from an email inbox anyway. So its a very small leap from that function, to this function.
But XenForo Also needs to be intelligent at detecting which mails are auto-responders and which are real replies... I know Deskpro fails at this task majorly, if it doesn't then you are going to have threads full of "I am our of the Office" reples..
 
But XenForo Also needs to be intelligent at detecting which mails are auto-responders and which are real replies... I know Deskpro fails at this task majorly, if it doesn't then you are going to have threads full of "I am our of the Office" reples..
Thats the same issue as you encounter when filtering bounced email. This can be covered by parameters.

Yes, thats also a solution. Either way XenForo needs it.
Nope. You can pipe e-mails into scripts. That would do the trick.
Yes, thats also a solution. Either way XenForo needs it to handle bounces..
 
This can also answer the mail for a WAP enabled site.
Users could interact with the site via email using their phones (similar to how FB uses text messages to update statuses)....

Granted I'd rather have the "visit" to the site - but anyway I can get more posting and activitiy is a good thing - IMO.
 
Many "bug" tracking applications use it...
Would it be possible to implement a "Reply by Email"

A Bug Tracking mod perhaps? I cannot envision the majority of sites using this as a fundamental/core feature, on the same level as making posts, reading posts, watching threads, etc.

?
 
@Abomination...
Perhaps, but a suggestion and functionality that would do wonders for me.
Picture how FaceBook handles replies via email and/or text message.

With the continual growth of smart phones and user ability to monitor email while away from their computer....
I think this is a fantastic feature to encourge posting from mobile users (as well as those to lazy to navigate to the site).

Grant for some, this may equal a drop in site "visits"...
But I'm not in the business of "visits" - I'm in the business of communication - so I look for any means possible to get my users talking.

Again, from my brain, based on my needs, for what I do.... Not the best for all I already understand.

p.s. Not to mention it IS a feature no other package current has...
One more thing to make this software unique in feature not avail elsewhere.
 
Let me put forth a practical application...
I just now came back from a boating trip down the ICW.
My plan was to keep everyone updated on where we were, what we were doing, etc...

Now I have a Blackberry storm, so yeah, I can hit my site via the browser, but it was painfully slow and cumbersome when underway...

Luckly I had already purchased WiForums, which is a stripped down secondary interface for Vbulletin.
This worked well...

But...

I found myself repling to facebook posts, rather than using my forums because it was just so much easier to hit reply and send.

So.... Maybe my site is too unique to consider such a feature, but I am sure there are other's whose sites are more about communicating than ensuring the user "visits" the site or whatever...

No disrespect intended, but these are the arguments I have had thrown at me before... "if a user can read and reply by email, they'll never visit the site driving down revenue....", etc....
 
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