# Easier discovery of the "post via email" capability

**URL:** https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413
**Category:** Forum and website feedback
**Created:** [August 29, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413 "2023-08-29T01:52:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jcfr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/jcfr/32/17825_2.png) [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413/1 "2023-08-29T01:52:29Z")

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To make the discovery of posting by email easier, I mirrored what was done in the CMake discourse adding a post via email `mailto:` link.

Related post:

- [Using Discourse as a mailing list](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/using-discourse-as-a-mailing-list/67)

| Slicer | CMake |
| --- | --- |
| [https://discourse.slicer.org](https://discourse.slicer.org) | [https://discourse.cmake.org/](https://discourse.cmake.org/) |
| ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/1/7/17e6371b32ed16c97a0c50e99240b0f0c1b6d802.png) | ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/d/2/d21f8c16b777cccb6dfc50f87dd32b35e407a76b.png) |

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### Author: ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 7:12am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413/2 "2023-08-29T07:12:49Z")

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I don’t think it is necessary to encourage participation in the Slicer forum via emails, as it offers a much more limited experience and weaker community engagement. It was important to showcase the email option years ago, when we had to convince people to start using forums, but by now most software have already switched to use forums or chat rooms for community support.

Adding the option there may cause a bit lower quality posts (user posts blindly - without real-time preview of final formatting; attached images are missing; signature may be included by mistake; runtime checks are omitted, etc). The link also makes the category list a bit more cluttered (especially because it appears with inconsistent style - blue text unlike all other links).

If someone really wants this link then I’m OK with keeping it there, but I would vote for not showing email links.

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### Author: ![jcfr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/jcfr/32/17825_2.png) [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 7:49am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413/3 "2023-08-29T07:49:37Z")

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> don’t think it is necessary to encourage participation in the Slicer forum via emails

Good point. I reverted the change.

Instead I simply added a link to the “Welcome” post in the “About” post for each:

- [About the Support category](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/about-the-support-category/36)
- [About the Development category](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/about-the-development-category/12)

| Another idea (also reverted) | Current Version |
| --- | --- |
| ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/4/f/4fda8f4182c40c5c8ff32718a2897add6727db90.png) | ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/slicer/original/3X/c/e/ceadf5f297be0d624b7b430dc52f3799cd42d67c.png) |

That way there is an easy path to get back to the welcome post where the possibility of using email was originally introduced.

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### Author: ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/easier-discovery-of-the-post-via-email-capability/31413/4 "2023-08-29T19:26:42Z")

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Thank you for the update!
