My Little Pony Express June 30, 2008 9:53 PM Subscribe
One thing that annoys me about long MeMail conversations is the lack of threading; before services like GMail and Facebook, which thread messages, this wouldn't have been such a big deal, but anymore I find it kind of irritating to have to click through several pages to read old messages in a thread. So how's about some conversation threading in MeMail?
There's two ways that I can think of to do this; one would be to track usage of the Reply feature and thread together messages which are replies to each other. The other is more simplistic and would be to thread anything with the same title or a title of "Re:[title]".
There's two ways that I can think of to do this; one would be to track usage of the Reply feature and thread together messages which are replies to each other. The other is more simplistic and would be to thread anything with the same title or a title of "Re:[title]".
middleclasstool on the nose. MefiMail is intended as a super-lightweight internal messaging system, not a hardcore mail replacement. If you're finding yourself having recurring problems with long conversations being cumbersome, consider taking it to genuine email and take advantage of your preferred client.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:17 PM on June 30, 2008
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:17 PM on June 30, 2008
Sounds reasonable enough, then.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:25 PM on June 30, 2008
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:25 PM on June 30, 2008
consider taking it to genuine email and take advantage of your preferred client.
There's an option to forward your MeFiMail to your email client of choice, correct?
posted by carsonb at 11:09 PM on June 30, 2008
There's an option to forward your MeFiMail to your email client of choice, correct?
posted by carsonb at 11:09 PM on June 30, 2008
There's an option to forward your MeFiMail to your email client of choice, correct?
Yeah, but don't hit reply, as it won't go back to the MeFi who sent it.
And no, don't expect that feature anytime soon. CF is brilliant at sending mail out, but not quite as fun for receiving it.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:18 PM on June 30, 2008
Yeah, but don't hit reply, as it won't go back to the MeFi who sent it.
And no, don't expect that feature anytime soon. CF is brilliant at sending mail out, but not quite as fun for receiving it.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:18 PM on June 30, 2008
"Related messages" would be nice; something that pulls up all messages in either direction with a given user.
It's all well and good to say "take it to e-mail", but when I have MeFiMail conversations I seldom know how long they're going to be when I first start them. Switching clients midstream also means that now the conversation is split between two places—unless I copy the previous messages over into e-mail. Which would be a lot easier with a "related messages" link.
Ack, feeping creaturism!
posted by Eideteker at 4:21 AM on July 1, 2008
It's all well and good to say "take it to e-mail", but when I have MeFiMail conversations I seldom know how long they're going to be when I first start them. Switching clients midstream also means that now the conversation is split between two places—unless I copy the previous messages over into e-mail. Which would be a lot easier with a "related messages" link.
Ack, feeping creaturism!
posted by Eideteker at 4:21 AM on July 1, 2008
Ack, feeping creaturism!
Is why we keep a healthy stock on hand of Expandicide. There are all sorts of issues we could tackle by adding features and functionality to mefimail, opening us up for the next round of issues we could tackle by adding more features and functionality, opening us up for the next round and so on. So we're not going there, generally speaking: the tool is what it is, and that's all what it is. Know it, love it, get a sense for its practical limits.
That said, a search feature isn't a bad idea. pb built a little beta for us on the back end -- I have over a thousand messages in my inbox, Jessamyn similarly, and it's handy every once in a while, though I do the forward-to-email thing so using gmail is usually just as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:30 AM on July 1, 2008
Is why we keep a healthy stock on hand of Expandicide. There are all sorts of issues we could tackle by adding features and functionality to mefimail, opening us up for the next round of issues we could tackle by adding more features and functionality, opening us up for the next round and so on. So we're not going there, generally speaking: the tool is what it is, and that's all what it is. Know it, love it, get a sense for its practical limits.
That said, a search feature isn't a bad idea. pb built a little beta for us on the back end -- I have over a thousand messages in my inbox, Jessamyn similarly, and it's handy every once in a while, though I do the forward-to-email thing so using gmail is usually just as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:30 AM on July 1, 2008
I have over a thousand messages in my inbox, Jessamyn similarly
That's a ridiculous sounding amount. I assume because it's generated within MetaFilter, that it's not spam. Is it generated from your admin facility or members actually emailing you personally? How do you deal with it?
posted by tellurian at 6:45 AM on July 1, 2008
That's a ridiculous sounding amount. I assume because it's generated within MetaFilter, that it's not spam. Is it generated from your admin facility or members actually emailing you personally? How do you deal with it?
posted by tellurian at 6:45 AM on July 1, 2008
It's all email from users. It's not (with a few jokey exceptions) inter-admin communication -- we do that via email or IM, generally. Any system-generated admin stuff goes straight to real email as well.
It's not hard to deal with the mefimail, because it tends to be stuff that I deal with promptly and then forget about. The stuff I got a year ago, I'm probably not going back for, and on the rare occasions that I do need to, we've got that admin-side search tool. (Which, in case there's any ambiguity or concern there, only let's us search *our own* mailboxes.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:55 AM on July 1, 2008
It's not hard to deal with the mefimail, because it tends to be stuff that I deal with promptly and then forget about. The stuff I got a year ago, I'm probably not going back for, and on the rare occasions that I do need to, we've got that admin-side search tool. (Which, in case there's any ambiguity or concern there, only let's us search *our own* mailboxes.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:55 AM on July 1, 2008
...only let's us search *our own* mailboxes.
Yes... let's do that.
grammar snipe head shot
posted by sleevener at 6:58 AM on July 1, 2008
Yes... let's do that.
grammar snipe head shot
posted by sleevener at 6:58 AM on July 1, 2008
I have problem's with rogue apostrophe's. It's a disease.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:00 AM on July 1, 2008
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:00 AM on July 1, 2008
*camps at re-spawn point*
posted by sleevener at 7:03 AM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by sleevener at 7:03 AM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
Is it generated from your admin facility or members actually emailing you personally? How do you deal with it?
Yeah despite the fact that the page tells people to not MeMail us with admin requests, it's sort of natural that they do anyhow and there's no easy way to make people not do that. I've got 1477 in my inbox and 1326 in my sent mail. If you need threading-type features, you probably need to push teh converstion to a mail client not a little pigeon postcard tool like MeFiMail (as much as I love it).
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:10 AM on July 1, 2008
Yeah despite the fact that the page tells people to not MeMail us with admin requests, it's sort of natural that they do anyhow and there's no easy way to make people not do that. I've got 1477 in my inbox and 1326 in my sent mail. If you need threading-type features, you probably need to push teh converstion to a mail client not a little pigeon postcard tool like MeFiMail (as much as I love it).
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:10 AM on July 1, 2008
1477 inbox, 1326 sent mail
151 unanswered under the general category of…
That's an impressive return rate jessamyn. I'm very happy that I don't have to deal with that level of email.
posted by tellurian at 7:30 AM on July 1, 2008
151 unanswered under the general category of…
That's an impressive return rate jessamyn. I'm very happy that I don't have to deal with that level of email.
posted by tellurian at 7:30 AM on July 1, 2008
Well and I never delete anything so I have it all for recordkeeping. I have only one or two that aren't answered at this point. I'll go do that now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:42 AM on July 1, 2008
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:42 AM on July 1, 2008
Well and I never delete anything so I have it all for recordkeeping defense against lawsuits. I have only one or two that aren't answered at this point. I'll go do that now.
FTFY
posted by blue_beetle at 12:10 PM on July 1, 2008
FTFY
posted by blue_beetle at 12:10 PM on July 1, 2008
I have over a thousand messages in my inbox, Jessamyn similarly
How did you get Jessamyn in your inbox? That's a neat trick!
Uh, you are going to let her out, aren't you?
posted by Crabby Appleton at 2:00 PM on July 1, 2008
How did you get Jessamyn in your inbox? That's a neat trick!
Uh, you are going to let her out, aren't you?
posted by Crabby Appleton at 2:00 PM on July 1, 2008
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posted by middleclasstool at 9:59 PM on June 30, 2008