Re: Reply vs Reply All

Posted by GregChapman on Sep 25, 2013; 9:43am
URL: https://support.nabble.com/Reply-vs-Reply-All-tp7586689p7586718.html

Coleen_Astalos wrote

Is there a way to set up whether a reply (via email) to a post goes back to the forum versus back to the original poster?

No!

Unfortunately, (from your point of view) there is no difference between the forum and the original poster. That's because any email that arrives at Nabble is intercepted and converted to a forum post and the email discarded. Then, if you have a subscription, Nabble generates an email copy of that post for you. That is why the forum itself is the original poster!

As far as I know even conventional mail list software would not be able to do what you request. All packages that I know only allow the list manager to set either "Reply to author" or "Reply to Subscribers", not both as that would always send two copies to the original poster - definitely undesirable!.

However, there is a work around. Read on...

I want a "reply" to go to the email address of the original poster, but a "reply all" to be posted back to the forum - which will then get distributed to all members who subscribe to that forum category.

If you want to send a reply to the original poster you must visit the forum and click on the poster's avatar/username. That will take you to a page that will allow you to post an email to the author.

This is easy to do as there is a link in the footer of any subscription email:
"If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:"
Click on that and you will be taken to the post in question.

Obviously, a simple "Reply" to a subscription email, will provide the "Reply to All" that you want - but even that is subject to a caveat. Nabble is primarily a forum. It is up to individual users to opt to receive emails. You cannot assume that a post you make to the forum will be received as an email by all other users. Most users will be visiting the forum itself to read any post, whether made by email or direct to the forum.