I found a previous discussion [1] which started out addressing this issue, but in the end seemed to settle on emails notifying of an update. What I'm looking for, and what some of the comments in that discussion discussed is the ability to post a comment, or even start a new thread via email. That means never using the browser or visiting the site. Everything is done via an email client the same way as mailing lists. The forum would simply serve as the archive for the list and a secondary way for users to post comments etc. That way the 'old-school' people feel like they're using a list and the 'new-school' (??) people use the forum and the difference is transparent to each set of users.

Personally, I started off using forums and have went 'backward' to lists, so when a newbie to a list asks for a forum and the seasoned users resist (unless they can post via email - see they are not totally unreasonable), I understand. Then again, I suppose all the crud in most forum packages has prejudiced them (as it did me - well, at least that's mostly what scared me away). With such a nice clean system like Vanilla and the option to not change their work patterns (works like a list) some of those people (myself included) might be more prone to adapt. And then, after they come to the forum to edit a few errant emails they fired off to the list/forum, they might even make a few more concessions.

Interestingly, I found a plugin [2] for phpBB [3] that does just this. Of course, I have no desire to use that forum package for the same reasons I like Vanilla. Although I did note that expanding the plugin to work with other forum packages was listed as one of the planned additions to the project. Maybe someone could look into using their code as a base for an extension.

I'd tackle the thing myself, but my time is already spread pretty thin and I haven't played with Vanilla as of yet (although I've read some of the docs and it looks promising - I think I might just borrow from the Object Factory concept in my own work - brilliant). Any other takers?

[1] http://lussumo.com/community/comments.php?DiscussionID=717
[2] http://www.mail2forum.com/wiki/Main_Page
[3] http://www.phpbb.com/

Um, so far as i'm aware, lemonade wont allow you to post to the forum. its more to manage mailing lists and subscriptions and the like. i think.

I would *think* the man would make his projects able to work together.

indeed nathan. I'm sure the two apps will link somehow, but i fail to really see what a MLM (if that is what he's making afterall) has to do with being able to post to a forum.
Lets break into his darkroom with a UV light and steal his notes!!

Thanks for the clarification guys. So it may, or may not adress my needs, but I would think it would certainly be easier to make that MLM work with Vanilla than any other. Either way, starting on an extension wouldn't be a waste of time then. If you notice, the Mail2Forum plugin for phpBB works any one of three ways, one of which is integrating with a mailing list. The other 2 methods simply use the forum and a single mailbox. To really make this extendable, I'd think we would want this to offer all those options as well. And if it's to be adopted by already existing lists, is needs to work with those list managers as well, not just Lemonade

Right. Since everyone seems to be desperate for this idea, i'm gonna make a basic start on it. The actual part of getting it to email someone isnt difficult. What i'm not sure how to do (and i'm hoping mark or lech will be able to give me a hand on this) is to get the data about the discussion they're posting in - obviously i need the discussion title and the user who posted it etc.

I suspect its all a standard object but i'm not sure which object it is and how to access these details.

If someone can hook me up i'll try my best to get an extension like this going.

I have a module that does this same thing on a different system (cms) mini. If you want the code, let me know.

Hold on, i meant to post that in the email from forum category which seems a much more wortwhile cause. I have no real desire to make an email to forum extension as it would be a whole load more work and as lech says, it's pretty silly really.

In pseudo, you would want to match up the users email address, username and password from the email you're recieving, then take the body text of the email and post it to the appropriate category. I presume you might be able to do this either via subject line or headers. And as far as that is concerned, I wouldn't know.

I'm attempting to build the 'user posts something into a "subscribed thread" and vanilla emails the people who subscribed with an update' extension, not a 'user emails vanilla and it posts for them'.

Lol, I think an easier way to say it is "email notification on reply".

oh, in that case I don't think you'll need to cronjob it. You'll just have to store the users subscribed to that thread somewhere and attach their emails to id's and as soon as the thread gets posted to have it simultaneously send out a message saying "hey jackass! your thread just got posted to!". In which case you'll also want an "unsubscribe" feature as well, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

I'd seriously wait until mark releases the next version of vanilla to attempt any of this because mark is creating a specialized "extensions" table just for this. Which might make things easier for extension writers so they don't have to serialize all this data.

currently, yes, extension settings are being stored via the user table. They're serialized and numbered which right now would be a headache to manage a dynamic range of threads and track stuff like you want to do. If I had to round this out, I'd throw a SubscribedTo row into the discussions table and populate it with user id's that want to receive updates. Because right now I can't think of an easier way to pull this off (sorry just waking up). I suppose you could do something of the same utilizing the user table and serializing a value with all the threads the user want's to recieve updates to as well but glueing everything together could be tedious and drive one crazy.

Chris, I think at the time, either Mark had a means to post from email set up, or franklin probably hacked a custom form into his phone :D

good deal, hopefully more flexibility will be there in the long run.

I too, am interested in this. I like Blueshark's comments.

I am also interested into posting via e-mail.

The big advantage of this is that people check their email very very frequently, people have outlook on the whole time at work. Email will be a much faster and easier way for them to get the replies for discussions they've posted and to reply back also. Many people at work wouldn't click on a link in the email to go on a leisure site full of fancy graphics but might well reply by email if they had a chance. But the main advantage - people have more and more memberships in tens of websites all over the web. They cannot possibly visit them all, especially if the community is still small. They register, read what they're interested in and leave, sometimes never returning again. However, if they were able to easily subscribe to a discussion to their email, they'd be much more likely to stay and participate. IMO this add-on would be in the interest of anyone starting off a Vanilla community.

Any update on the ability to post and comment via email?

Okay so i want to roll out vanilla to a group of old foggies who may or may not like the forum style but deffinitlly want try it. In order to ease them in i will need a way for vanilla to send out any new posts to peoples email and then be able to receive replies to those emails and post in the proper discussion. In essence turning the forum into a email list/forum hybrid.

I know PHPBB has a similiar feature called Mail-2-Forum. I really like vanilla though and would prefer to use it.

I have a team of 3 beg. programmers who can devote 1 1/2 weeks, 10hrs per week to the task. Would it be possible to develope this functionality in that time?