Brandon C said

There are probably a lot of people that could create such a plugin but maybe not so much a demand to do so. If someone is subscribed to a topic most would rather they get the email and then come to the website. Since most sites are wanting more pageviews why would they create something that gives them less?

I acknowledge for a lot of sites trying to build pageviews, it would make no sense. But the site I'm working on is a paid membership site, so we want the members to access the forums in the ways that are most convenient for them.

The member interactions are more valuable to us than the pageviews, in this case.

For many of our members, this two-way email communication to the forums is easily the single best mode for them, and for a few different reasons:

• Convenient mobile access on any e-mail enabled phone, as Yellow Swordfish alluded to.
• Many members' workplaces block web browsing to sites that aren't strictly work-related, so email is the only way they could participate. For some reason our member profile tends to work in positions where this seems more common than I would generally expect.
• Even for those who are not otherwise blocked, we feel like members will tend to stay more engaged with the site with this model because they can simply hit Reply to a message and offer their thoughts instead of having to go to the site, possibly login, possibly get distracted along the way. Just like conversions: fewer steps means they are more likely to do it. Hard to beat seeing a message and Replying for fewest number of steps. 🙂

Anyway, I would still love to entertain some freelancers on the idea. Otherwise, I'm going to have to do it myself and my list is already too long!

thanks!
 

Nope, no luck yet.