denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2013-04-20 11:46 am

Heads up: Replying from comment notification emails will be changing with next code push

Monday night/Tuesday morning's code push will include a change to comment email notifications designed to make it much (much!) easier to reply to comments from the email notification. I wanted to give everyone a heads up ahead of time so y'all don't worry when you see the change!

As it stands now, replying to a comment email notification requires you to a) have HTML emails enabled, b) be able to load a Dreamwidth web page by submitting the form (so it doesn't work if you read the email while you're at work if your work has Dreamwidth blocked, for instance) and c) be logged in as the account you're trying to reply as. This causes problems and annoyance for people who use text-only emails (like me!), for people who are trying to reply somewhere that they can't load Dreamwidth itself (which kind of defeats the purpose of comment notification emails in some cases), and -- most often -- for people who have multiple Dreamwidth accounts, who have to log in and out of different accounts all day. People have developed all kinds of workarounds, including browser extensions that will do the logging in and out for you, but not only is that still kind of annoying, those browser extensions have a really annoying habit of losing your login cookies, and of course they don't work if you're not on your own computer.

So [personal profile] fu has completely overhauled the process of replying by email. After our next code push, the reply form will be removed from notification emails entirely. Instead, you'll be able to reply to a notification email inside your mail client, just like you'd reply to any other email, and your reply will be posted to the site.

You can read the FAQ -- How do I reply to comments from email notifications? -- before the feature goes live, but some questions I anticipate:

Do I have to do anything special in my email reply?

Just reply to it the way you'd reply to any other email. The only requirement is that the text of your reply must come before all the quoted material. (In other words, you need to "top-post" your reply text.)

Do I have to set anything up first to make it work?

If your email client is set up to send emails from the same email address you've confirmed for your Dreamwidth account, you don't have to do anything special to set things up ahead of time. If your email client is set up to use a different email address -- maybe you forward your Dreamwidth comment notifications to a different address than your confirmed email address, or are using the example+foo@example.org email format as your confirmed email address (to sort your emails locally) but send email from example@example.org instead -- you'll need to set whatever email address you send email from as an authorized email address for email posting/commenting.

How do I set the subject for my comment?

To change a comment's subject, change the subject of the email. If you leave the subject alone, the comment will have the same subject as the comment you're replying to (or no subject if the comment you're replying to didn't have one).

How do I set an icon for my comment?

To pick an icon other than your default, add "post-icon: keyword" as the first line of your reply. For instance, if the text of my comment is "I am happy!" and I want to use the icon keyworded "happy", the text of my reply email would be:
post-icon: happy
I am happy!
> Quoted text appears here

What if I have multiple accounts with the same confirmed email address?

Replying to a comment notification email will always post the comment as the account the notification was sent to. For instance, even if [personal profile] username and [personal profile] username2 have the same confirmed email address, if I receive a notification email to [personal profile] username and reply to it, the comment will appear from [personal profile] username -- even if my browser is logged in as [personal profile] username2 at the time.

Can I reply to a comment email as an account other than the account that received the notification?

No. For security, the reply will always be posted as the account that received the notification. If you need or want to reply as another user (or anonymously), you'll have to follow the link to reply at the website, same as before.

So how does it work?

After the code push, each comment notification email will have a unique reply-to address that includes information about what comment it's replying to, plus a secret authorization token to identify you. When you hit 'reply', your email client should use the reply-to address, which will make sure the email gets to where it's going. (If your email client isn't set up to use the reply-to address rather than the 'from' address automatically, you'll need to either change that setting, or remember to always use the reply-to address instead.)

If you ever accidentally share the reply-to address with someone else, that person might be able to reply as you under some (rare) circumstances, so it's important to keep the reply-to address secret. If you ever accidentally share it with someone, you'll be able to reset the secret authorization token on the Mobile tab of Account Settings. Resetting the token will mean you won't be able to reply to old comment emails anymore, but new comment emails will generate a new secret authorization token for future use.


Again, this will not be live until the next code push, but if you've got any other questions in advance, let me know! I think that as soon as you see it, you'll fall in love with it as much as I have -- especially if you're trying to juggle multiple accounts. :)
intermezzo: (Default)

[personal profile] intermezzo 2013-04-21 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
I have tried to use the will-be-obsolete HTML form within the notif many times before, but it was such a hassle, with the constant logging in/out and I just...stopped using it. This is SO much better for me. Thank you, guys!
ruriair: (Қɧ : boogie panda)

[personal profile] ruriair 2013-04-21 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
I know there can be more than one keyword per icon - it's not a bad idea in the slightest, but not something I'm fond of personally because I don't like "clutter" and I use the custom icons page, so if things don't line up right/run more than one line/TOO MUCH TEXT it bugs me like you wouldn't believe. Being big on aesthetics always complicates matters on my end.

Having an email copy of icons and keywords sounds awesome tho even if it's not coming right away.
flower_power: (pic#6038175)

[personal profile] flower_power 2013-04-21 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
Soooooo, regarding icons and their keywords. How specific must one be? For example, if your exact keyword was 'happy' would post-icon: Happy land you with your default?

Basically how important is remembering where you put your capital letters?
lavendertook: (annamaria cheers)

[personal profile] lavendertook 2013-04-21 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Way cool! Thank you, bb! (-:
brownbetty: (Default)

[personal profile] brownbetty 2013-04-21 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
GOSH. This sounds amazing.

Fu is a rockstar.
auronlu: (CeilingCloud)

[personal profile] auronlu 2013-04-21 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
It helps so much that the admins of DW actually use DW for the same things that the members do. :D
chrestomanci: (Default)

[personal profile] chrestomanci 2013-04-21 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
Love that you can change icons! Now I just need to keyword mine hahaha.
asseenontv: (Tony Stark Time)

[personal profile] asseenontv 2013-04-21 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
^ this is my face right now

(also this is [personal profile] momijizukamori, and these keywords are for you and Kat)
grey853: (BBCH_SherlockFrustrated_rolliraserin)

[personal profile] grey853 2013-04-21 09:26 am (UTC)(link)
I really don't care for this change at all. The whole business of having to type in keywords to change the icon makes it difficult because I don't remember the keywords off the top of my head. My keywords are long and contain maker names. So, essentially, I won't be able to change the icon in a reply easily at all.

It'd be nice to have an opt out so people could continue to use it as always.

Sorry, but this is a lousy change. Not all of us use mobile devices, you know.
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)

[personal profile] cesy 2013-04-21 10:31 am (UTC)(link)
What are you losing? You currently can't change the icon from within the email at all. And you can still follow the link to the site to choose the icon from a drop-down as usual. How does this change make anything harder for your use case?
pauamma: Cartooney crab wearing hot pink and acid green facemask holding drink with straw (Default)

[personal profile] pauamma 2013-04-21 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks.

[personal profile] thousanth 2013-04-21 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Epic. This fixes every issue I've ever had with email-reply to comments! :D
ninetydegrees: Art & Text: heart with aroace colors, "you are loved" (Default)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2013-04-21 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
To clarify, this doesn't change the way you reply to comments directly from the web page where the comment is (like I'm doing right now on my laptop). It simply gives you an alternative: when you get an email about a new comment you'll also be able to reply to the comment by replying to the email, which wasn't possible at all before. That's easier on some mobile devices because loading the web page where the comment is can take a long time or just not work but you'll still be able to do whatever you've always done, no matter which device you use.
I was a bit confused about what this did at first so maybe you are too. My apologies if you understood what it was about already or I misunderstood what you said.
Edited 2013-04-21 13:07 (UTC)
grey853: (ani_BirdyJump_upsa_daisy)

[personal profile] grey853 2013-04-21 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I was thinking from what I read that this was the only way to reply now, but if that's not the case, it's fine.
fantasticforcefields: (Default)

[personal profile] fantasticforcefields 2013-04-21 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, well then:



misskat: Dreamwidth is powered by *disco ball* (Dreamwidth is powered by Disco!)

[personal profile] misskat 2013-04-21 03:24 pm (UTC)(link)
fantasticforcefields: (041)

[personal profile] fantasticforcefields 2013-04-21 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)


Also the new(ish) icon browser is sweet as hell. (She said, reminded by posting this comment of the fact that she is too lazy to keyword 100 icons properly.)
misskat: Text: you're a kitty! Image: stick figure cheering (You're a KITTY!)

[personal profile] misskat 2013-04-21 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)


ETA:
Edited (I just like gifs, ok? Don't judge me.) 2013-04-21 16:23 (UTC)
mullvaney: (Default)

[personal profile] mullvaney 2013-04-21 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I have a few too many accounts for that, I think, and not enough money to pay them. I think I'll just have to adjust to tagging threads the old fashioned way once the changes roll out.
sempai: douseisei katsu 2009, propeller shiki (Default)

[personal profile] sempai 2013-04-21 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you, this is amazing and I can't wait to try it out.
marahmarie: (M In M Forever) (Default)

[personal profile] marahmarie 2013-04-21 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
So I'll have to disable my text captcha to let people reply via email to comment notifications on my posts? I do have that turned on at the moment but I will gladly (if somewhat, just somewhat discomfitly) disable it, if that's what it takes to let emailed replies flow freely.

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