Applying for and using extinctionrebellion.uk email accounts

Applying for an @extinctionrebellion.uk email account

This page explains which groups are eligible for XR email addresses, and how groups can apply.

Is your group eligible?

The following types of group may be issued with @extinctionrebellion.uk email addresses :

Addresses cannot be issued to:

Is your group on the 'Communications Hub'?

Addresses can only be issued to groups whose existence has been recorded on the XR UK Communications Hub since we1 use the Hub to verify requests. If your group is not yet listed you should ask your 'Group Admin' or the 'Group Admin' of your parent circle3 to help with this.

Are you personally on the 'Communications Hub'?

The applicant should be personally listed on the Hub as holding a core role2 in the group requesting an email. If you're not yet listed you should ask your 'Group Admin' or the 'Group Admin' of your parent circle3 to help with this (more here).

How to apply

If you're happy that you/your group meet the above criteria please make your request with a message to this chat channel (on XR's Mattermost).

If you need an address urgently but are unable to immediately fulfil all the above criteria, please ask for advice in the above channel anyway: we may be able to find a workaround.

Footnotes:
  1. Who is 'we'? Your-group@extinctionrebellion.uk email addresses are administered by the Digital Discussions Applications Team
  2. A 'core role' would be any of 'External Co-ordinator', 'Internal Co-ordinator' or 'Group Admin'.
  3. 'Parent circle': For local groups, the 'parent circle' would be your regional group

This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team. February 2023.

Logging in to your XR email account via Webmail

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This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team.

Logging in via an external email client

The most secure way to access your email account is by using the webmail interface via your browser (see this page).  This avoids mail being unnecessarily downloaded to your device which could be a problem should your device ever find itself in the wrong hands!  If you find handling the login details for webmail difficult and/or time consuming, please consider using a password vault such as KeePassXC or Bitwarden1 which are capable of automatically filling in login page details.

However, if you do need to have external access, here's some guidance on how to set it up on various services...

iOS for iPhone/iPad/iPod and

MacOS Mail.app and

Windows Live Mail

Mozilla Thunderbird

Assuming you already have Thunderbird installed on your computer, Mozilla provide instructions for setting up account access here.  Check our "Find the 'mail client manual settings' from your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account" section below so that you know what to enter into Thunderbird.

Gmail

Please consider whether you really want to give Google access to your XR email account.  Whilst Google security against intruders is good enough, the problem lies within.  Google harvests your (and your correspondent's) data.  Gmail is free because you are the product.  But if you must...

Note that Gmail doesn't provide IMAP access (only POP3), so changes made on your device (eg: deleting an email) will not automatically be sychronised with the main @extinctionrebellion.uk (C-panel) account and vice-versa.

1) Receiving via Gmail

To set up receiving your @extinctionrebellion.uk mail in your Google account:

2) Sending via Gmail

To set up sending your @extinctionrebellion.uk mail from your google account:

If the above information hasn't worked, it's worth checking that the suggested entries haven't changed since this guidance was written.   See the section below.

Find the 'mail client manual settings' from your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account:

The 'mail client manual settings' is the information, specific to your XR email account, that you may need in order to set up external access (Eg: if requested by a provider for whom we've not already given instructions). To find this information (our server URL and port numbers etc):

Option 1
Option 2

Footnotes

  1. XR-UK also hosts it's own version of Bitwarden (a.k.a. The Vault) upon which your group could store it's passwords. See this page for more info.
  2. @rebellion.earth accounts: When setting up access for an old @rebellion.earth email account please just read '@rebellion.earth' in place of all references to '@extinctionrebellion.uk' on this page

This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team.

Using Email Folders

This page shows how to create and use email folders for your @extinctionrebellion.uk account1 via our 'Roundcube' Webmail interface. However, if you're accessing your emails via a third party app using IMAP (not POP3), then you'll be able to carry out these operations via that software also, and changes made there will automatically be copied into the Webmail account.

Why use folders?

Folders allow you to organise your mails. Our Webmail comes with some folders already created. These are:

You may want to create extra folders for various reasons such as:

How to create Folders in Webmail

  1. Firstly you'll need to log into Webmail.

  2. From within Roundcube, click on the 3 dots next to your email name, and then on 'Manage Folders'.

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  1. With the 'Folders' tab selected (under 'Settings'), click on 'Create'.

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  1. Enter the folder name (Eg: Outreach) and click on 'Save'.

NOTES:

  1. The information on this page also applies to older @rebellion.earth emails. Just read @rebellion.earth wherever @extinctionrebellion.uk is mentioned.

This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team.

Plus addressing

What is 'Plus-addressing'?

If your group might benefit from separate addresses for different working groups or campaigns, this can be achieved by using something called 'plus addressing' which permits variations of your main email address to be sent to different folders.

For example, let's assume that Trumpton local group holds the trumpton@extinctionrebellion.uk address. Their outreach team could use trumpton+outreach@extinctionrebellion.uk .  The team would still log in to the main Trumpton account, but rather than their mail being mixed in with everything else in the inbox, it would all be grouped together in the 'Outreach' folder.

In other words, any incoming mail with a 'plus address' that matches a folder name will jump the main 'inbox' and instead be added directly that folder.

Prepare your account for plus addressing

Before giving out your 'plus address' you need to manually create a folder within 'Roundcube' called (eg:) 'outreach'. You'll then be able to invite people to mail to (eg:) trumpton+outreach@extinctionrebellion.uk, and mail to that address will land in the (eg:) outreach folder.

If no matching folder has been created then 'plus address' mail should land in the main 'Inbox' folder. Automatic creation of folders when receiving 'plus addresses' is possible, but we disable that feature by default on account set-up (to avoid the risk of spammers creating havoc in your folder structure).

Sending from a plus-address

Assuming that you want to be able to send from your plus-address as well as receive mail into it, you'll need to set up an additional 'identity' for your account. In order to do this:

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Now when you go to compose a new email the plus-address will be amongst the available identities to send from. Click on the default email address that is automatically showing in the 'From' field. In the drop-down menu, select the plus-address identity that you want to send from. The 'Reply-To' field will automatically be updated.

This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team.

Forwarding and filtering @extinctionrebellion.uk emails

This page describes methods of forwarding all, or just certain types, of email onwards from your @extinctionrebellion.uk email accounts1. This is an alternative to accessing your mail directly, either via Webmail or via an external email client

Why forward?

Forwarding can permit mail from your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account to be sent to any other email account that your group uses so that all mail is combined in one place. However it has the disadvantage that any replies to emails from those places will not then be from your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account. You might want to consider doing things the other way around, setting your non-xr account to forward into your xr account. For instructions to do that you'll need to check the help pages of your other email provider.

Forwarding can also act as a method of disseminating emails to various different addresses, but if doing that you'll need very clear agreements about which members of your team are dealing with which emails or things may get very confusing! This feature is probably most useful for allowing group members who aren't actively involved with responding to emails to nevertheless be able to monitor ongoings and keep abreast with incoming news.

Forwarding vs Filtering

Forwarding is more basic than filtering. It's used when you don't want to keep copies of forwarded email in your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account, whereas filtering can send mail onwards whilst also retaining mails in your @extinctionrebellion.uk inbox (or any other folder of your choice). Filtering can also sort emails according to (eg) subject line content or plus-address name, and send mails to different places accordingly.

How to set up 3 scenarios (A to C) is set out below:

(A) Forward all incoming mail to one or more other email accounts

If you don't need a copy of the incoming mail to remain in your @extinctionrebellion.uk email account then the easiest way to set up forwarding is as follows:

  1. Log in to your accounts 'Webmail Home' page. See this page if you're unsure how to do this.

  2. You should now be on the 'Webmail Home' page of your account which should look like this:

    WebmailHome_Forwarding.png If your account automatically enters the 'Roundcube' inbox page upon login, click on the 'CP Webmail Home' button in the left menu in order to return here.
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  3. Click on the 'Forwarders' button,

  4. On the 'Forwarders' page click on the 'Add Forwarder' button,

  5. Enter the email address you want to forward to into the 'Destination - Forward to Email Address' text box,

  6. Check that you've typed the email correctly!

  7. Click on the 'Add Forwarder' button,

  8. Repeat steps 4-7 for any additional email addresses that you also wish to forward to.

(B) Filtering: Forward mail whilst retaining copies in your @extinctionrebellion.uk inbox

  1. Follow steps (1) and (2) in section (A) above.

  2. Click on the 'Email Filters' button.

  3. On the 'Email Filters' page click on the 'Create a new filter' button.

  4. In the 'Filter Name' box enter a description for your filter. Eg: 'Forward all to our Protonmail account'.

  5. Under 'Rules' click on the left-hand drop-down menu. It displays 'From' as default: Click on 'Any recipient',

  6. You can leave the right-hand drop-down menu as is. It displays 'Contains' as default.

  7. Click into the text box below the drop-down menus and enter your @extinctionrebellion.uk email address.

  8. Under 'Actions' click on the drop-down menu. It displays 'Discard Message' as default: Click on 'Deliver to Folder' instead. A text box will appear below.

  9. Click on the 'Browse' button to the right of the text box, and select 'INBOX' (or whichever folder you want the incoming mail to be stored in).

  10. Click on the '+' button to the right of the screen on the 'Actions' line to add a second action.

  11. A new drop-down menu (default 'Discard Message') will appear. This time select 'Redirect to Email'.

  12. Enter the email address that you want mail to be forwarded to into the text box.

  13. If you want mail to be forwarded to any additional addresses repeat steps 10-12.

  14. Click on the 'Create' button.

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(C) Filtering: Forward only selected types of email

Filtering provides endless possibilities for automatically sorting your incoming mail. This example just looks at how to selectively forward in conjunction with using plus-addressing.

Let's assume that you want to use a plus-address for your Outreach working group (eg: yourgroup+outreach@extinctionrebellion.uk) to automatically forward to the private email of one of the working group members (eg: 'Amber'), and that you have already created a folder called 'Outreach' in which to store copies of forwarded mail. All other incoming mail is to go to the inbox folder as normal:

  1. Follow steps (1) to (3) in section B above.

  2. In the 'Filter Name' box enter a description for your filter. Eg: 'Forward Outreach-WG to Amber'.

  3. Under 'Rules' click on the left-hand drop-down menu. It displays 'From' as default: Click on 'To' 2

  4. You can leave the right-hand drop-down menu as is. It displays 'Contains' as default.

  5. Click into the text box below the drop-down menus and enter your @extinctionrebellion.uk email plus-address (eg: yourgroup+outreach@extinctionrebellion.uk)

  6. Under 'Actions' click on the drop-down menu. It displays 'Discard Message' as default: Click on 'Deliver to Folder' instead. A text box will appear below.

  7. Click on the 'Browse' button to the right of the text box, and select (eg:) 'Outreach' (or whichever folder you want the forwarded mail to be copied to)

  8. Click on the '+' button to the right of the screen on the 'Actions' line to add a second action.

  9. A new drop-down menu (default 'Discard Message') will appear. This time select 'Redirect to Email'.

  10. Enter the email address that you want mail to be forwarded to into the text box (eg: ambers_private@her_domain.com)

  11. If you want mail to be forwarded to any additional addresses repeat steps 8-10.

  12. Click on the 'Create' button

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NOTES:

  1. The above information also applies to older @rebellion.earth emails. Just read @rebellion.earth wherever @extinctionrebellion.uk is mentioned above.
  2. 'To' is used here rather than 'Any recipient' because otherwise mail sent to yourgroup@extinctionrebellion.uk and cc-ed to yourgroup+outreach@extinctionrebellion.uk would be caught by the filter and only go to the Outreach team, missing the main inbox. Using 'To' does mean that any mail cc-ed or bcc-ed to the Outreach team will not get to them automatically (will need to be forwarded manually by whoever checks the main inbox), but this will generally be better than such mail skipping the main inbox.

This page has been contributed by the Digital Discussions Applications Team.

Email account queries & help

If you need help with your XR email account, and you can't find the answer within this chapter of the Rebel Toolkit please contact us either:

Importing and exporting contacts from webmail

If you want to import contacts to Roundcube, you can use a CSV file (such as can be produced by Excel).

Roundcube requires specific column headings in the CSV file, to match either MS Outlook, Thunderbird or Atmail.

These are:

MS Outlook 2010

Thunderbird

Atmail

You do not have to include all the fields.

Note that spaces and letter case are significant.