(this page updated 2 February 2026 , to re-organise the document and point at the latest PDF file.)
Touchbase 2 uses 'Gaggle Mail' as the underlying technology for managing our mailing list, and sending out emails. We are using one of their basic, free accounts, which used to allow members of the group to send an email to a special email address provided by Gaggle, and it would automatically be sent through to all members of the group without everyone having to know the email addresses of all the members. Now the way they recommend is to do it via a browser, having logged into the Gaggle mail website.
Suppose you forgot that messages are meant only be sent to Touchbase 2 via your browser, and accidentally either hit the 'reply all' button on a TouchBase message (or, equivalently, used the normal 'reply all' button on your email program), or you tried to start a new Touchbase 2 thread by sending an email message to the gaggle email address. Don't panic! Gaggle will send you a message saying you can't do it that way any longer, and in the message there will be a link to the message in your 'drafts folder' on Gaggle. Click on this link, you will be prompted to log in as per steps 1 and 2 below. Once logged in, you can open your Gaggle drafts folder, open up the copy of the message you had tried to send via email, do any necessary changes, and then click the send button. This is shown in the PDF file mentioned below.
Unfortunately the facility of sending a post via email is no longer available for free, and you will have to do things in a slightly more complicated fashion, and using your browser instead or as well as your email program. It's a fairly simple process, and is illustrated step-by-step in a PDF file you can download - but basically, the procedure is to
visit https://gaggle.email.login, type in your email address (the one you told us about when setting up your TouchBase 2 membership), and then either click the 'sign in with email' link, or 'sign-in manually'.
If you chose the former option Gaggle will send you an email with a magic link in it, click the link, and you will be logged in! (The link works only for a limited time, and it is single-use. The 'manual' option will avoid the need for the verification email phase, but it does require you to have set a (free) account with Gaggle; if you are likely to be sending posts often, setting up an account is probably the best approach.)
Once logged in, click the green Touchbase button to confirm which group you are wanting to talk to, and on the next page there's a red 'compose' button that allows you to put together your post - or you can select a message and reply to the sender.
Please remember when posting messages that you should follow the guidelines, and in particular you should not send large pictures: we have a very small daily allowance, and once that's used up other people won't be able to make any posts. Visit the FAQs to see some hints on ways to reduce the space used by pictures before you send them!
In practice, the easiest way is to create an account on Gaggle, and let your web browser remember the email address and password for this account. Then, whenever you want to make a post:
to send the post via email, remembering to compress any pictures before you click 'send';
wait until you get the message from Gaggle saying it has not sent your post;
click on the link in that email to take you to your folder of draft posts;
select the draft post, and click on the link to send it.
This is not the way Gaggle would like you to do it (they would prefer you to do everything via their website, including composing your post), but it has the advantage that it's the simplest (especially when you want to 'reply all') to a post that you’ve received via email), and also works well with software that compresses photos that you want to send via email. If Gaggle changes its rules yet again, we'll update this page!