Groups

fhapgood · 10 Jul 2019, 02:08 AM

It is my impression that Fastmail does not support groups. Am I wrong about this?

somdcomputerguy · 10 Jul 2019, 10:59 AM

Go to Contacts. Does that not support your impression?

- Bruce
http://emdpics.somdcomputerguy.com/

Grhm · 11 Jul 2019, 10:02 AM

On the desktop web interface it's at
Mail>Contacts>[left panel]
On the mobile web interface you need to go to
More>Settings>Account>Groups
I hope this is what you were after.

n5bb · 11 Jul 2019, 11:48 AM

Fastmail has supported contact groups for many years. The user interface has recently changed so that you create and edit the group names on the Contacts screen. See the following help page and scroll down to the Contact Groups section near the bottom of the page:
https://www.fastmail.com/help/guides...gschanges.html

You can type the first portion of a group name (or GROUP or VIPS) with capitalization ignored in an addressing field to insert the addresses of all persons in the group.

In the Contacts list, you can choose some or all (use the box at the top of the selection box column) of the group members and click the Compose box to compose a new email to those specific contacts.Use the Search box at the top to discover only certain contacts So you can use this method to send a message to all contacts in your Friends group with a name starting with "Ron".

You can make automatic rules which apply only to members of a certain group. And the X-Spam-Known-Sender header shows which groups match the sender.

I find that Contact Groups is one of my most-used features of Fastmail.

Bill

fhapgood · 11 Jul 2019, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

Fastmail has supported contact groups for many years.

Bill

I may very well have used the wrong term. I know that Fastmail has Groups as defined in these very clear responses. I was thinking of Groups in the sense of Yahoo Groups or Google Groups or for that matter the FastMail Forum -- a system in which subscribers can have those their posts published without the intervention of the moderator.

My understanding is that this is not possible with FastMail Groups -- when Alice responds to a posting in a FastMail group her reply goes directly to the moderator, who decides each time whether to publish it to all subscribers. It's not automatic. That's the focus of my question. Right or wrong?

Grhm · 11 Jul 2019, 11:56 PM

It's possible to set things up in Fastmail so that mail sent to a particular alias is automatically forwarded to all members of a group... which is almost the same thing.
I know this because I did it myself last year, with help from others on this forum.
See this thread:
http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=74101
You will find Bill's contributions to that thread massively helpful if you want to go down that route.
I also added some Sieve to check before forwarding that incoming mail received at the alias was sent by a member of the group.
I'm a bit hazy now about the details - but if you think it might be useful to you I'll dig out my code and post it here.

n5bb · 12 Jul 2019, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fhapgood

...I was thinking of Groups in the sense of Yahoo Groups or Google Groups or for that matter the FastMail Forum -- a system in which subscribers can have those their posts published without the intervention of the moderator....

Fastmail provides email services, with a few additional features (Calendar, Notes, Files with optional web access). They do not provide discussion group services.

The FastMail Forum we are posting in is a free service of emaildiscussions.com, which has no relationship with Fastmail. Google Groups is a separate feature offered by Google, and is not directly related to their email service.

Since this is EmailDiscussions, readers assume that all posts are referring to email-related topics unless the poster clearly states otherwise.

My previous post alluded to in in the last post (http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=74101) showed how to use collaborative email, where you can set up your Fastmail account to automatically forward messages sent by members of a contact group to all members of that contact group. This is quite different from an online discussion group (which has no direct need for use of email).

Bill

pjwalsh · 9 Aug 2019, 09:43 AM

Related to group communication, I was sad to see Fastmail's rudimentary XMPP facility removed a few years back. I'm sure there was next to no demand at the time, but with minimal effort might have been a useful niche feature, like the web hosting and file serving. It wouldn't have taken much to run a server, given FM's resources.

10 Jul 2019, 02:08 AM	#1
fhapgood Master of the @ Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Boston USA Posts: 1,063	Groups It is my impression that Fastmail does not support groups. Am I wrong about this?

11 Jul 2019, 11:56 PM	#6
Grhm Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: UK Posts: 270	It's possible to set things up in Fastmail so that mail sent to a particular alias is automatically forwarded to all members of a group... which is almost the same thing. I know this because I did it myself last year, with help from others on this forum. See this thread: http://www.emaildiscussions.com/showthread.php?t=74101 You will find Bill's contributions to that thread massively helpful if you want to go down that route. I also added some Sieve to check before forwarding that incoming mail received at the alias was sent by a member of the group. I'm a bit hazy now about the details - but if you think it might be useful to you I'll dig out my code and post it here. Last edited by Grhm : 12 Jul 2019 at 12:33 AM. Reason: aliases; checking incoming mail

10 Jul 2019, 10:59 AM	#2
somdcomputerguy Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Rupert, WV Posts: 879	Go to Contacts. Does that not support your impression? - Bruce http://emdpics.somdcomputerguy.com/

11 Jul 2019, 10:02 AM	#3
Grhm Essential Contributor Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: UK Posts: 270	On the desktop web interface it's at Mail>Contacts>[left panel] On the mobile web interface you need to go to More>Settings>Account>Groups I hope this is what you were after.

11 Jul 2019, 11:48 AM	#4
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,925	Fastmail has supported contact groups for many years. The user interface has recently changed so that you create and edit the group names on the Contacts screen. See the following help page and scroll down to the Contact Groups section near the bottom of the page: https://www.fastmail.com/help/guides...gschanges.html You can type the first portion of a group name (or GROUP or VIPS) with capitalization ignored in an addressing field to insert the addresses of all persons in the group. In the Contacts list, you can choose some or all (use the box at the top of the selection box column) of the group members and click the Compose box to compose a new email to those specific contacts.Use the Search box at the top to discover only certain contacts So you can use this method to send a message to all contacts in your Friends group with a name starting with "Ron". You can make automatic rules which apply only to members of a certain group. And the X-Spam-Known-Sender header shows which groups match the sender. I find that Contact Groups is one of my most-used features of Fastmail. Bill

9 Aug 2019, 09:43 AM	#8
pjwalsh Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 312	Related to group communication, I was sad to see Fastmail's rudimentary XMPP facility removed a few years back. I'm sure there was next to no demand at the time, but with minimal effort might have been a useful niche feature, like the web hosting and file serving. It wouldn't have taken much to run a server, given FM's resources.