Me MeMail MeTa October 20, 2011 12:48 PM Subscribe
Pony Request: MeMail 'Sent Mail' Forwarding
We can opt to forward incoming memail to a specified email address. Would it be possible to opt to have MeMail we send forwarded as well?
We can opt to forward incoming memail to a specified email address. Would it be possible to opt to have MeMail we send forwarded as well?
Yes, I would groom your pony too.
posted by ifjuly at 1:17 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ifjuly at 1:17 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
That is a really weird pickup line.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:19 PM on October 20, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by shakespeherian at 1:19 PM on October 20, 2011 [3 favorites]
This is something we've talked about here in MeTa and also behind the scenes and really don't think it's something we're looking at changing. MeMail is supposed to be a basic messaging system to get ahold of other users. We're aware that people use it to have long conversations with other users in lieu of email, but this is sort of not what we designed it for. So, making it operate more like email isn't something we're really looking to add on. pb is at lunch so he'll show up in a bit and talk more about this, but our general feeling is that we have an export function with MeMail generally but that if you want to have longer permanent conversations with people that live in your email system, you should move those conversations over to email. This has many other side benefits [being able to keep in touch with MeFites who may have left MetaFilter being the main one] as well.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:29 PM on October 20, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:29 PM on October 20, 2011
Yeah, what jessamyn said. This came up last month and we said the same thing there. You can always go to your sent folder to see MeFi Mail you sent.
We don't have a MeFi Mail export feature. You can export comments and favorites, but MeFi Mail is only available on the server. It's intended to be a super lightweight way to get in touch with a member. We don't want to go down the road of trying to duplicate a fully functional email client because there are a bunch of those done really well. We hope people jump out to email when they want to have serious, archived conversations in their normal flow of conversations.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:35 PM on October 20, 2011
We don't have a MeFi Mail export feature. You can export comments and favorites, but MeFi Mail is only available on the server. It's intended to be a super lightweight way to get in touch with a member. We don't want to go down the road of trying to duplicate a fully functional email client because there are a bunch of those done really well. We hope people jump out to email when they want to have serious, archived conversations in their normal flow of conversations.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:35 PM on October 20, 2011
Whoops sorry I have no idea why I thought MeMail was exportable.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:39 PM on October 20, 2011
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:39 PM on October 20, 2011
pb: " We don't have a MeFi Mail export feature. You can export comments and favorites, but MeFi Mail is only available on the server. It's intended to be a super lightweight way to get in touch with a member. We don't want to go down the road of trying to duplicate a fully functional email client because there are a bunch of those done really well. We hope people jump out to email when they want to have serious, archived conversations in their normal flow of conversations."
Just to clarify: I'm not asking for an export service. I'm asking if a feature that already exists (email you receive gets forwarded to an email address you specify) can be made to work more globally within the system to also forward mails you send.
Jessamyn, I got a memail with someone who shall remain nameless a few months back that literally started with "WHAT THE FUCK?!" and got worse from there. It took several back and forth exchanges to turn quasi-civil. There's no way in hell I want anyone who thinks that shit's acceptable to have access to my personal email address. It didn't reach the level of "I'd like the mods to step in," but it wasn't a pleasant exchange either.
pb, the reason I ask is I suspect this is already possible and working in another area of the site. Every MeFite has the ability to get a copy of an email that we send to the mods through the contact form sent to our specified email address.
Keeping the system light is fine. You don't want it to become a substitute for gmail or any other mail service. I get that. But how is forwarding content to another email addres mimicking a feature of gmail or any other email service? The function already exists in reverse.
posted by zarq at 1:46 PM on October 20, 2011
Just to clarify: I'm not asking for an export service. I'm asking if a feature that already exists (email you receive gets forwarded to an email address you specify) can be made to work more globally within the system to also forward mails you send.
Jessamyn, I got a memail with someone who shall remain nameless a few months back that literally started with "WHAT THE FUCK?!" and got worse from there. It took several back and forth exchanges to turn quasi-civil. There's no way in hell I want anyone who thinks that shit's acceptable to have access to my personal email address. It didn't reach the level of "I'd like the mods to step in," but it wasn't a pleasant exchange either.
pb, the reason I ask is I suspect this is already possible and working in another area of the site. Every MeFite has the ability to get a copy of an email that we send to the mods through the contact form sent to our specified email address.
Keeping the system light is fine. You don't want it to become a substitute for gmail or any other mail service. I get that. But how is forwarding content to another email addres mimicking a feature of gmail or any other email service? The function already exists in reverse.
posted by zarq at 1:46 PM on October 20, 2011
pb, the reason I ask is I suspect this is already possible and working in another area of the site. Every MeFite has the ability to get a copy of an email that we send to the mods through the contact form sent to our specified email address.
And the reason we added this is because there's no way to see what you sent to the Contact Form. It goes into a mysterious black hole unless you send a copy to yourself. You can access your Sent Mail at MeFi Mail anytime to see what you sent.
But how is forwarding content to another email addres mimicking a feature of gmail or any other email service? The function already exists in reverse.
What exists now is an alert to let you know that you received a MeFi Mail. It also includes the text of the message, but you can't interact with message via email any further. You can't reply there. You have to go to your MeFi Mail inbox to respond. This feature is already confusing. People get the email alert and want to respond via email. It's a natural response to something you get in your inbox. The further we integrate MeFi Mail with email the deeper this confusion becomes, I think.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:55 PM on October 20, 2011
And the reason we added this is because there's no way to see what you sent to the Contact Form. It goes into a mysterious black hole unless you send a copy to yourself. You can access your Sent Mail at MeFi Mail anytime to see what you sent.
But how is forwarding content to another email addres mimicking a feature of gmail or any other email service? The function already exists in reverse.
What exists now is an alert to let you know that you received a MeFi Mail. It also includes the text of the message, but you can't interact with message via email any further. You can't reply there. You have to go to your MeFi Mail inbox to respond. This feature is already confusing. People get the email alert and want to respond via email. It's a natural response to something you get in your inbox. The further we integrate MeFi Mail with email the deeper this confusion becomes, I think.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:55 PM on October 20, 2011
Whoops sorry I have no idea why I thought MeMail was exportable.
I think because I told you it was, because for some reason I had imagined that it was. I thought we'd implemented a "give me a flat dump of my mefimail sent and received" feature in parallel with the comment history dump, but I was probably mistaking that with the favorites dump thing we added. Sorry about the confusion!
Jessamyn, I got a memail with someone who shall remain nameless a few months back that literally started with "WHAT THE FUCK?!" and got worse from there. It took several back and forth exchanges to turn quasi-civil. There's no way in hell I want anyone who thinks that shit's acceptable to have access to my personal email address. It didn't reach the level of "I'd like the mods to step in," but it wasn't a pleasant exchange either.
Which makes sense, sure, but that's more of a managing-who-you-talk-to-and-how-much thing than a mefimail feature thing. If you specifically choose to have lengthy back-forth-exchanges with people you don't want to give your email address to because you don't trust them to have it, that's totally your deal but it's not specifically what mefimail was intended for and not the sort of thing that's going to primarily drive our decision-making about it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:22 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
I think because I told you it was, because for some reason I had imagined that it was. I thought we'd implemented a "give me a flat dump of my mefimail sent and received" feature in parallel with the comment history dump, but I was probably mistaking that with the favorites dump thing we added. Sorry about the confusion!
Jessamyn, I got a memail with someone who shall remain nameless a few months back that literally started with "WHAT THE FUCK?!" and got worse from there. It took several back and forth exchanges to turn quasi-civil. There's no way in hell I want anyone who thinks that shit's acceptable to have access to my personal email address. It didn't reach the level of "I'd like the mods to step in," but it wasn't a pleasant exchange either.
Which makes sense, sure, but that's more of a managing-who-you-talk-to-and-how-much thing than a mefimail feature thing. If you specifically choose to have lengthy back-forth-exchanges with people you don't want to give your email address to because you don't trust them to have it, that's totally your deal but it's not specifically what mefimail was intended for and not the sort of thing that's going to primarily drive our decision-making about it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:22 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sorry, zarq. I meant to say "WHAT THE PUCK?!". I get touchy when people start dissing hockey.
posted by deborah at 2:22 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by deborah at 2:22 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
Jessamyn, I got a memail with someone who shall remain nameless a few months back that literally started with "WHAT THE FUCK?!" and got worse from there.
That wasn't me, was it? If it was, I was joking.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:25 PM on October 20, 2011
That wasn't me, was it? If it was, I was joking.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:25 PM on October 20, 2011
pb is at lunch
Working at MetaFilter just became a bit more mundane.
I like the curtain.
posted by OmieWise at 2:34 PM on October 20, 2011
Working at MetaFilter just became a bit more mundane.
I like the curtain.
posted by OmieWise at 2:34 PM on October 20, 2011
Working at MetaFilter just became a bit more mundane.
You haven't seen how I lunch.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on October 20, 2011 [17 favorites]
You haven't seen how I lunch.
posted by pb (staff) at 2:38 PM on October 20, 2011 [17 favorites]
I think we're getting greedy with all of the new pony rollouts that pb has been granting recently. The search button on the profile page! IT'S SO GLORIOUS IT'S BLINDING*
*at least I think it's new. I just noticed it anyway.
posted by Think_Long at 2:48 PM on October 20, 2011
*at least I think it's new. I just noticed it anyway.
posted by Think_Long at 2:48 PM on October 20, 2011
I lose track of the order non-cabal members get features in.
last edited by shakespeherian at 16:58 on October 20
posted by shakespeherian at 2:57 PM on October 20, 2011
last edited by shakespeherian at 16:58 on October 20
posted by shakespeherian at 2:57 PM on October 20, 2011
You haven't seen how I lunch.
We don't talk much about the other coder we used to have ... jelly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:08 PM on October 20, 2011 [7 favorites]
We don't talk much about the other coder we used to have ... jelly.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:08 PM on October 20, 2011 [7 favorites]
So, I guess the dashboard widget for ordering take out from local restaurants based on my zip code is out?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:10 PM on October 20, 2011
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:10 PM on October 20, 2011
So, I guess the dashboard widget for ordering take out from local restaurants based on my zip code is out?
My MefEat?
posted by Think_Long at 3:20 PM on October 20, 2011
My MefEat?
posted by Think_Long at 3:20 PM on October 20, 2011
Sounds kinky. Hopefully there were be a drive-thru.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:26 PM on October 20, 2011
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:26 PM on October 20, 2011
We don't talk much about the other coder we used to have ... jelly.
No one ever talks about me. *sigh*
posted by Jelly at 3:57 PM on October 20, 2011 [3 favorites]
No one ever talks about me. *sigh*
posted by Jelly at 3:57 PM on October 20, 2011 [3 favorites]
I was talking about you jelly. Earlier on facebook and G+. I was saying you were wobbly and a bit fruity. And that they were your best qualities. The calves hooves - not so good. Still, you are part of our childhood and you made us who we are. Everyone agreed and then we all had to go off and do adult things like pick up our wives from the airport, put the kids to bed, drink a bottle of cheap blended scotch. Don't worry, we'll never forget you.
posted by Elmore at 4:30 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Elmore at 4:30 PM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]
pb: "And the reason we added this is because there's no way to see what you sent to the Contact Form. It goes into a mysterious black hole unless you send a copy to yourself. You can access your Sent Mail at MeFi Mail anytime to see what you sent.
Ah. Ok.
What exists now is an alert to let you know that you received a MeFi Mail. It also includes the text of the message, but you can't interact with message via email any further. You can't reply there. You have to go to your MeFi Mail inbox to respond. This feature is already confusing. People get the email alert and want to respond via email. It's a natural response to something you get in your inbox. The further we integrate MeFi Mail with email the deeper this confusion becomes, I think."
That's... odd.
posted by zarq at 5:23 PM on October 20, 2011
Ah. Ok.
What exists now is an alert to let you know that you received a MeFi Mail. It also includes the text of the message, but you can't interact with message via email any further. You can't reply there. You have to go to your MeFi Mail inbox to respond. This feature is already confusing. People get the email alert and want to respond via email. It's a natural response to something you get in your inbox. The further we integrate MeFi Mail with email the deeper this confusion becomes, I think."
That's... odd.
posted by zarq at 5:23 PM on October 20, 2011
It's a sort of necessary evil to serve that one major feature—letting people find out if they have mefimail passively through their normal inbox, without them having to be constantly checking the top right corner of the site—without making things tons more complicated by trying to facilitate two-way communication with random external email clients.
The email comes from "mefimaildontreply" and has instructions in the body to go to mefimail to respond; short of putting a DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MAIL thing at the top and bottom in all caps as well, there's not really much more we can do to make it clear that the mefimail notification is not for replying to via email, but still people find it kind of confusing because, hey, it's mail, right? But it's a hard-to-fix side-effect of what is intended to be a basic notification service ABOUT mefimail rather than an external interface TO mefimail.
We really, really do not want to get into the business of further blurring the line between the two. Operating mefimail as a generic email interface would be a huge pile of work and headache for very little real gain.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:37 PM on October 20, 2011
The email comes from "mefimaildontreply" and has instructions in the body to go to mefimail to respond; short of putting a DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MAIL thing at the top and bottom in all caps as well, there's not really much more we can do to make it clear that the mefimail notification is not for replying to via email, but still people find it kind of confusing because, hey, it's mail, right? But it's a hard-to-fix side-effect of what is intended to be a basic notification service ABOUT mefimail rather than an external interface TO mefimail.
We really, really do not want to get into the business of further blurring the line between the two. Operating mefimail as a generic email interface would be a huge pile of work and headache for very little real gain.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:37 PM on October 20, 2011
cortex: " Which makes sense, sure, but that's more of a managing-who-you-talk-to-and-how-much thing than a mefimail feature thing. If you specifically choose to have lengthy back-forth-exchanges with people you don't want to give your email address to because you don't trust them to have it, that's totally your deal but it's not specifically what mefimail was intended for....
Wait, MeMail was set up so that members here would have the ability to communicate with one another without switching to a separate email system, right? It's not a fully-fledged email system, and I accept that. But unless I'm missing something, it was set up as a light internal communications alternative to email. I don't understand why you are qualifying that as "not what memail was intended for?"
...and not the sort of thing that's going to primarily drive our decision-making about it."
I'm not asking any of you to do that. I was only explaining to Jessamyn that what she was suggesting, specifically "...that if you want to have longer permanent conversations with people that live in your email system, you should move those conversations over to email." is not always going to be desirable or practical. That's all.
If I wanted Mefites to contact me via email, I'd post the address in my profile. Instead, you've created a very nice system whereby people can communicate without leaving the site, so it seems logical to take advantage of it.
posted by zarq at 5:43 PM on October 20, 2011
Wait, MeMail was set up so that members here would have the ability to communicate with one another without switching to a separate email system, right? It's not a fully-fledged email system, and I accept that. But unless I'm missing something, it was set up as a light internal communications alternative to email. I don't understand why you are qualifying that as "not what memail was intended for?"
...and not the sort of thing that's going to primarily drive our decision-making about it."
I'm not asking any of you to do that. I was only explaining to Jessamyn that what she was suggesting, specifically "...that if you want to have longer permanent conversations with people that live in your email system, you should move those conversations over to email." is not always going to be desirable or practical. That's all.
If I wanted Mefites to contact me via email, I'd post the address in my profile. Instead, you've created a very nice system whereby people can communicate without leaving the site, so it seems logical to take advantage of it.
posted by zarq at 5:43 PM on October 20, 2011
cortex: "It's a sort of necessary evil to serve that one major feature—letting people find out if they have mefimail passively through their normal inbox, without them having to be constantly checking the top right corner of the site—without making things tons more complicated by trying to facilitate two-way communication with random external email clients.
I hear ya. I never remember to check the little icon. It wasn't until I turned on the forwarding that I started replying to memails in a (sort of) timely manner.
The email comes from "mefimaildontreply" and has instructions in the body to go to mefimail to respond; short of putting a DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MAIL thing at the top and bottom in all caps as well, there's not really much more we can do to make it clear that the mefimail notification is not for replying to via email, but still people find it kind of confusing because, hey, it's mail, right?
Short of the blink tag. It honestly never occurred to me that people might see all of those things and still might be confused.
But it's a hard-to-fix side-effect of what is intended to be a basic notification service ABOUT mefimail rather than an external interface TO mefimail.
It all seems like a tremendous headache. Predicting human behavior is always a pain in the ass, I know.
We really, really do not want to get into the business of further blurring the line between the two. Operating mefimail as a generic email interface would be a huge pile of work and headache for very little real gain."
OK. Thank you. I'm okay with that. Lord knows I don't wanna make your jobs more difficult than they already are. It just initially struck me as a simple feature
posted by zarq at 5:48 PM on October 20, 2011
I hear ya. I never remember to check the little icon. It wasn't until I turned on the forwarding that I started replying to memails in a (sort of) timely manner.
The email comes from "mefimaildontreply" and has instructions in the body to go to mefimail to respond; short of putting a DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MAIL thing at the top and bottom in all caps as well, there's not really much more we can do to make it clear that the mefimail notification is not for replying to via email, but still people find it kind of confusing because, hey, it's mail, right?
Short of the blink tag. It honestly never occurred to me that people might see all of those things and still might be confused.
But it's a hard-to-fix side-effect of what is intended to be a basic notification service ABOUT mefimail rather than an external interface TO mefimail.
It all seems like a tremendous headache. Predicting human behavior is always a pain in the ass, I know.
We really, really do not want to get into the business of further blurring the line between the two. Operating mefimail as a generic email interface would be a huge pile of work and headache for very little real gain."
OK. Thank you. I'm okay with that. Lord knows I don't wanna make your jobs more difficult than they already are. It just initially struck me as a simple feature
posted by zarq at 5:48 PM on October 20, 2011
I'm not asking any of you to do that. I was only explaining to Jessamyn that what she was suggesting, specifically "...that if you want to have longer permanent conversations with people that live in your email system, you should move those conversations over to email." is not always going to be desirable or practical. That's all.
Right, and I was trying to make it clear that that's a social problem, not a mefimail-needs-additional-features problem is all. That it's not desirable for you to move a conversation over to a full-fledged email client because you don't want your interlocutor to have your email address has basically nothing to do with whether or not we're going to build out mefimail more, basically.
Some sort of undesirability or impracticality for whatever reason of the standing solution to needing more mail features—that is, moving over to a real mail client built with feature-richness in mind—is a bummer and I sympathize, but that's about as far as it goes, is what I'm saying.
It honestly never occurred to me that people might see all of those things and still might be confused.
People are wondrous and varied, which is awesome in a lot of ways but also means it's a pain in the ass to goof-proof things, yeah.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:11 PM on October 20, 2011
Right, and I was trying to make it clear that that's a social problem, not a mefimail-needs-additional-features problem is all. That it's not desirable for you to move a conversation over to a full-fledged email client because you don't want your interlocutor to have your email address has basically nothing to do with whether or not we're going to build out mefimail more, basically.
Some sort of undesirability or impracticality for whatever reason of the standing solution to needing more mail features—that is, moving over to a real mail client built with feature-richness in mind—is a bummer and I sympathize, but that's about as far as it goes, is what I'm saying.
It honestly never occurred to me that people might see all of those things and still might be confused.
People are wondrous and varied, which is awesome in a lot of ways but also means it's a pain in the ass to goof-proof things, yeah.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:11 PM on October 20, 2011
This came up last month and we said the same thing there.
Yeah, I asked about the same thing (It's Raining Florence Henderson has yet to follow up with me about his/her desire to receive a copy of all my sent MeMails) and I accept the reasoning behind not adding further functionality to MeMail.
For me it boiled down to an obsessive and probably irrational need to delete everything out of my MeMail account (including Sent history) and have everything present in my saved-and-archived paradigm, which is my Gmail account that I archive onto my personal files with their attendant local and cloud-y backups periodically, in case Google screws me over.
In brief, this is bascially about me, not Metafilter, and the expedient (to have things the way I want them to be) of copying the occasional sent MeMail and Gmail-ing it to myself so I can delete it here (ahhh) is not that onerous.
posted by nanojath at 10:12 PM on October 20, 2011
Yeah, I asked about the same thing (It's Raining Florence Henderson has yet to follow up with me about his/her desire to receive a copy of all my sent MeMails) and I accept the reasoning behind not adding further functionality to MeMail.
For me it boiled down to an obsessive and probably irrational need to delete everything out of my MeMail account (including Sent history) and have everything present in my saved-and-archived paradigm, which is my Gmail account that I archive onto my personal files with their attendant local and cloud-y backups periodically, in case Google screws me over.
In brief, this is bascially about me, not Metafilter, and the expedient (to have things the way I want them to be) of copying the occasional sent MeMail and Gmail-ing it to myself so I can delete it here (ahhh) is not that onerous.
posted by nanojath at 10:12 PM on October 20, 2011
(bascially? how's that 3 minute edit window coming along?)
posted by nanojath at 10:13 PM on October 20, 2011
posted by nanojath at 10:13 PM on October 20, 2011
how's that 3 minute edit window coming along?
It's one of those things we discuss once in a while, but it's not on any of my lists of things to do in the near term. We know there's a group of people who want this feature very badly and others who believe it will be the End of MetaFilter. I think we'll probably make it a priority sometime, but I can't guarantee it.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:40 PM on October 20, 2011
It's one of those things we discuss once in a while, but it's not on any of my lists of things to do in the near term. We know there's a group of people who want this feature very badly and others who believe it will be the End of MetaFilter. I think we'll probably make it a priority sometime, but I can't guarantee it.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:40 PM on October 20, 2011
Yes, I would groom your pony too.
That is so dirty, and yet, so clean. So groomed. So... ahem.
More seriously, I really like how the current MeMail system works. I do wish it had very basic text functionality (eg italics, bold, etc) to have a bit less of the "wow, this feels like a typewriter!" thing, but that's more like asking to pet a borrowed hamster, rather than asking for a full-blown pony.
posted by Forktine at 11:34 PM on October 20, 2011
That is so dirty, and yet, so clean. So groomed. So... ahem.
More seriously, I really like how the current MeMail system works. I do wish it had very basic text functionality (eg italics, bold, etc) to have a bit less of the "wow, this feels like a typewriter!" thing, but that's more like asking to pet a borrowed hamster, rather than asking for a full-blown pony.
posted by Forktine at 11:34 PM on October 20, 2011
but that's more like asking to pet a borrowed hamster, rather than asking for a full-blown pony.
as in, asking to get peed on? WHO'S THE DIRTY ONE NOW
posted by ifjuly at 1:07 PM on October 21, 2011
as in, asking to get peed on? WHO'S THE DIRTY ONE NOW
posted by ifjuly at 1:07 PM on October 21, 2011
I was all gearing up for a good joke about pony-blowing, and then you give me hamster pee instead?
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:10 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:10 PM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Blowing Ponies" (well, maybe spelled "Ponys"...maybe even "Blowin' Ponys") sounds like a grungy '90s college radio rock band name to me. Probably getting my wires crossed with Ass Ponys and Snowpony.
posted by ifjuly at 7:57 PM on October 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ifjuly at 7:57 PM on October 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by zarq at 12:49 PM on October 20, 2011 [6 favorites]