User-editable invitation-email content (For Hosts-only?)

[root]

Propagation folks have requested the ability to include custom messages in the invitation emails that are sent out by powerusers and Hosts. This might also be a quick way to allow propagation Hosts to give important warnings to new users (such as "Don't post your node address on the Web!")

            * We should make sure that all languages are supported
            * We can start by only allowing this for Hosts, if we are worried about it
            * Should this message also appear, automatically, on the welcome screen after new users create their accounts? (That would make it relevant to "create invitation" recipients as well as "send invitation" recipients....
            * The custom message should be in-addition-to, rather than instead-of the default message.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

What is the priority on this? Seems like something we can implement in the next (April) release.

                Are the custom email messages stored in the Psiphon system for future use, or do we just add an optional text box the user can paste into when they do Send Invite (so users store and manage their messages externally)?

                If stored for future use, are they shared by all Node Hosts on a proxy, or private setting per Host?

                (The welcome screen idea doesn't necessarily require messages stored for future use, as any one-off message can be store along with the invitation record to be displayed after the account is created.)

                For language support, what is required? Simply support messages with international characters? Or let the user specify multiple texts -- one per target language. The user sets a language when they create an account, so the text displayed could be picked from a per-lang list. But it seems likely the inviter and invitee speak the same language plus unlikely the inviter will translate, so only one version of the message will ever be used.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Replying to [comment:2]:
                > What is the priority on this? Seems like something we can implement in the next (April) release.

                For April, we need this feature and/or very good stock messages in these same places. (In other words, allowing customized messages will take off some of the pressure to "get it right" with the mandatory, stock messages.)

                > Are the custom email messages stored in the Psiphon system for future use, or do we just add an optional text box the user can paste into when they do Send Invite (so users store and manage their messages externally)?

                If we can get the UI right, it would be very useful to allow a Hosts (and powerusers?) to save these messages as templates. In fact...if we don't, that'll come down the pipe as a feature request in short order. Most people will probably want to send nearly the same message with every invite....

                > If stored for future use, are they shared by all Node Hosts on a proxy, or private setting per Host?

                I say private per host/poweruser

                > (The welcome screen idea doesn't necessarily require messages stored for future use, as any one-off message can be store along with the invitation record to be displayed after the account is created.)

                Good point. Does the following sound about right?
                * Invitation emails and welcome-screen text always show the same things:
                1. Mandatory "stock" Psiphon messages
                2. Persistent, customized message (stored)
                * Optionally selectable from a list of several "templates"? Lower priority....
                3. Ephemeral, one-off message

                > For language support, what is required? Simply support messages with international characters?

                That is sufficient for now. The mandatory "stock" messages (set by Psiphon) are a different matter, however. Those should be localized per user-preference. Right?

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Replying to [comment:3]:

                * Invitation emails and welcome-screen text always show the same things:
                1. Mandatory "stock" Psiphon messages
                2. Persistent, customized message
                * Minimal: a single stored custom message per Host/poweruser
                * Desirable: Multi-node Hosts (once they are implemented) can set one stored custom message per node
                * Better yet: Multi-node Hosts can choose each node's message from a list of their own stored custom messages
                * Optional: All Hosts/powerusers can choose from a list of their own stored custom messages
                3. Ephemeral, one-off custom message

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Accidental ticket reassignment. Sorry.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Ipropose we implement this in phases, with the following simple change in the April 2009 release:

                * In Send Invite, make message Body editable (as Subject is now)
                * Dump (in invite-sender language) stock message into editable Body

                This will allow users to customize the messages, but they'll have to store their persistent, custom messages themselves for now.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Replying to [comment:7]:

                > I propose we implement this in phases, with the following simple change in the April 2009 release:
                >
                > * In Send Invite, make message Body editable (as Subject is now)
                > * Dump (in invite-sender language) stock message into editable Body

                Agreed.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Replying to [comment:9]:
                > Replying to [comment:7]:
                >
                > > I propose we implement this in phases, with the following simple change in the April 2009 release:
                > >
                > > * In Send Invite, make message Body editable (as Subject is now)
                > > * Dump (in invite-sender language) stock message into editable Body
                >
                > Agreed.

                We should support this for all users who can invite (Users, Power Users, Propagators, Hosts and Admins)

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Part of user model redesign. Spec @ end of April / 09.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

It's not immediately apparent that the simple version of this feature (an editable text area for part of the invitation email content) is either:
                1. A prohibitive amount of work, or
                2. Dependent on the larger user model redesign.

                And, it has the potential to make a significant difference in:
                a. The number of recipients who are able to create accounts successfully,
                b. The number of users who make it past the invlaid-certificate warning,
                c. The likelihood that recipients will take necessary security precautions with their Node IP

                I suspect that this feature is being held back due to security concerns about the information that people might insert into these messages. We should discuss this in more detail, but I think that short-term implementation of this high-priority feature is well worth the potential risks that it might introduce. I also think that, for the time being, we can mitigate any such risks by:
                i. Clearly delineating the "custom" portion of an invitation email from the "stock" portion
                ii. Only implementing this feature for Admins, Hosts and Propagators.

[root (n-root-psiphon-ca)]

Milestone June 2009 Release deleted