Reply-by-email

!markdown
(X-posted at my [pastebin](https://pastebin.com/pKffJtPB))

Note that this entire document is predicated on the use of Gmail and using the Gmail web interface. If you use a different service and/or use a different client, this may not be *quite* as helpful, but you can probably adapt the instructions as needed.

## Set up your email accounts correctly

First of all, each of your characters needs their own email address. This is done by adding a `+CHARACTER_NAME` string to your base Gmail address. For example, if your Gmail is `[email protected]` and you have a character named Bob, log in as Bob, go to the [Account Settings page](https://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/settings/), and change Bob's email to `[email protected]`.

But you're not done yet Go to the [Account mobile settings page](https://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/settings/?cat=mobile) and add your base email address there, which enables you to email replies correctly.

## Basic filtering

The easiest way to create a filter for a single character is to take a notification that you already have and create a filter based on it.

1. Open a comment notification and click the three-dots button at the top of the message and select **Filter messages like these**.

2. Gmail will automatically populate the filter criteria with `[email protected]`. Now you'll add your character's modified email address to the **To** field. Using our example from the previous section, that would be `[email protected]`. Click **Create filter**.

3. Now you need to provide the actions that will take place. Select **Apply the label** and then select **New label** from the drop-down and create a new label for your character. You should also select **Also apply filter to matching messages**. Click **Create filter**.

There are more powerful things you can do with filters that are especially useful when doing reply-by-email stuff; we'll get to that later.

## Track posts and threads liberally and use more filters

Use that tracking button, of course. This may also mean you get a lot of "Reply to a comment" notifications for characters not your own. That means you may want to set up labels and actions for comments not specifically addressed to your own character.

This time, create your filter from the Filter Settings page.

1. In Gmail, click the gear icon, choose **See all settings**, and then click **Filters and blocked addresses**.

2. Scroll down and select **Create a New Filter**

3. In the filter criteria, enter `[email protected]` in the **From** field. In the **Subject** field, enter the string `Reply to a comment`. Click **Create filter**.

4. Select **Apply the label** and then select **New label** from the drop-down and create a label called `Tracking` (or whatever you like, of course). Select **Also apply filter to matching messages**. Click **Create filter**.

## Advanced filtering

Once you're comfortable with filters, you can start doing a lot more with them, including auto-deleting comments posted by one of your own characters on a tracked post or thread. This is VERY important to prevent misfires when replying by email.

For example: your character Bob has posted a log, and your character Carol is posting in a thread on that log. Normally you'd get double-emailed at both Bob and Carol's emails. Setting up this filter correctly will auto-delete any "Reply to a comment" that are essentially cc'd to Bob, which you don't need cluttering your inbox. But your "Reply to your comment" notifications to Carol are preserved. For this, you need to create a filter with the following criteria:

* From: `[email protected]`
* To: `[email protected]`, in which you enter Bob's email.
* Subject: `POST_ID`, which is the number value  that appears in the subject line of the comment notification: `Reply to a comment. [ GAME_COMM - POST_ID ]`,
* Has the word: Carol's DW username

The actions that should be performed on these posts are: Mark as read and Delete.

For an example what filtering like that looks like behind the Gmail curtain, refer [this XML file](https://pastebin.com/SN92CMVr), which you can also edit and import to your own Gmail account through the **Filters and blocked addresses**, where there's an **Import filter** option at the bottom of the page.

## Create an icon reference sheet

When you reply to a comment by email, you can include an icon by adding the first line `post-icon: <icon keyword>`. If you have a lot of icons, this can be challenging, but one way you can create a reference sheet is to view all your icons in keyword order:
`https://<username>.dreamwidth.org/icons?sortorder=keyword&view=all`
Save that sheet as a PDF or as an HTML file and you're all set.

If you feel like doing something advanced, save the sheet as an HTML file on your desktop or some other useful location and use your favorite text editor to clean up the extraneous HTML. You can then open that HTML file in a browser window.

For god-tier customization, you can style the sheet. This is most easily done with an advanced text editor like [Atom](https://atom.io/). [Here's an example of the code for a styled sheet.](https://pastebin.com/tHQ1KWM8) The resulting page will look something like [this](https://finalprogramme.dreamwidth.org/file/980.png).

## Keyboard shortcuts

Now that Dreamwidth does a better job of accepting [Markdown](https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=271), this is slightly less necessary, but if you're tagging from your phone, you may want to create keyboard shortcuts to make your life a little easier.

For example, let's say you want to create a shortcut for the HTML for an `a href` link.

1. On your phone, locate the settings for keyboard shortcuts. For example, on an iPhone it's under **General** -> **Keyboard** -> **Text Replacement**.

2. Add `<a href="url">text</a>` as a new custom phrase.

3. The shortcut for that phrase can be whatever you want, but it should be something that won't be easily mistaken for another common word. I use `ahref`.

4. Save the shortcut.

The other useful shortcut is for the `post-icon:` string. My shortcut for it is `poic`; whenever I type it, my phone will autocorrect it to `post-icon:`, and then all I have to do is enter the icon keyword.