How to use DU's new Share By Email function

[EarlG]

As part of today's patch, we've introduced a couple of new features which are mentioned in my original announcement here. One of these features, the new Share By Email function, needs a bit of explaining so I'm going to put it in a separate post.

For a long time people have been asking if we can create a way to easily share threads via email. Unfortunately if we created a function which sent emails for you, we'd quickly run into significant privacy and spam issues. However, we think we've come up with a good solution which simply helps you create your own emails.

How it works

1) Click the "Share" button at the bottom of any OP and select the "Email" option. This will take you to your Mailing List.

2) If you have not entered any email addresses, enter one that you'd like to send the thread to, and it will be added to your Mailing List.

3) Check the boxes next to the email addresses that you want to email the thread to, and click the "Preview recipients" button.

4) Once you're sure everything is good, click the "Create email" button.

What happens next

Instead of us sending the email for you (which would create privacy and spam issues) our software will instead attempt to open an email for you using your default email program. For most people this should be seamless -- your email program will just pop open a new message. (Unfortunately, for some people the process might fail at this point if you don't have a default email program.)

The email will be addressed to the email address associated with your DU account, so you're essentially sending it to yourself, but the email addresses that you checked in your Mailing List will be added as BCC recipients. This means that the people you send the email to will see you as the sender, but they will not be able to see the names/email addresses of the other BCC recipients.

The email will also include the title of the thread you're sharing, and a link to the thread. Of course you can always edit the email to add your own comments at this point, or you can just send it off as is.

It sounds a bit complicated when written down, but if you give it a try you should find it to be a simple process. We hope this makes it easier for you to share good threads you find on DU with friends!