Discussions are reply-all communications. Replies go through Gust, where they are captured and sent to everyone in the thread.

Announcement replies are sent only to the sender. When users reply via email the reply bypasses Gust and is sent directly to the sender's email.

In Deal Discussions you can select a specific audience within the deal participants, or you can select "All Participants" to send it to everyone who has access to the deal.

In Group Discussions and Announcements, you can choose to send them to either All Active Members, or you can send a communication to a specific subgroup.

Whether or not you get sent, or can access a Discussion is based on several factors: 1) being a Participant, 2) The Audience for the discussion, 3) being Subscribed, 4) a member's Account Settings, and 5) their Message Thread Settings.

Any Group Member with access to a deal room is a Participant of that deal. Participants can view the deal's materials, rate and review the deal, and set an interest level. Once a Participant sets an interest level, (Like "Observing" or "Committed") they are automatically Subscribed to the deal. Once they're subscribed they'll receive Deal Discussions sent to "All Active Members" in their email.

It is also possible to manually subscribe to a deal without setting an interest level.

When starting a Deal Discussion, you'll have the option of selecting an audience. Who you select determines who can view the discussion and who receives it in their email. Below is a screencap of the Deal Discussion tool with All Active Members highlighted. When sending a Discussion to all the active group members - it will be sent via email to every active group member that is both a) a participant in the deal and b) subscribed.

If you want to create a Deal Discussion with a smaller audience you can select individual participants to receive the message. When you choose a targeted audience all recipients will receive it in their email inboxes - regardless of their subscription status. Below is a screenshot of a Discussion being created with a targeted audience.

If a member does not wish to receive email from their Gust groups they do have the ability to turn it off at the source. Under Account Settings members can opt of receiving Communications in their email.

If the boxes above are unchecked, even a participant in the audience for a targeted Discussion won't receive it in their email.

Members can also elect to mute a specific Discussion. In these cases, they won't receive email replies about it anymore. Below is a screenshot of a Deal Discussion where the participant turned off Discussion Notifications.

The participant can still see the Discussion thread by going to the Discussions panel in the Deal Room, but they won't receive replies in their email anymore.

If a new Discussion thread is started, the participant will receive it in their email.

Below is a chart that shows what conditions a participant will or won't receive a Deal Discussion under. You can also view it as a Google Sheet Here.

Can I create a Communication via email?

Yes. You can create a group announcement via email by emailing a special email address listed in the Communications section of Gust. Messages created this way are always Announcements, so email replies will go directly to you. Announcements created via email are always sent to all members.

No. Communications at the Deal level are always "Discussions" with a reply-all behavior.