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On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:15:44 -0500, David W. Hodgins kindly replied:
> Deleting a message from the "Mail for $account name" does move the message
> to trash, so it's gone from Received too.
That's not what I asked, but I think it hints anyway at the answer.
The only way to remove a message from "Received" is to delete it entirely;
that's why the suggestion to take "Received" as your "Inbox,"
even if you have only one account, appeals possibly
to people who have never created any other mailboxes (or views)
in "normal" email clients (or web apps),
and leave their entire life history forever in their "Inbox,"
not just "work remaining to be attended to" -- a "To Do" list
(would they do the same with a physical "Inbox" on their office desk?)
Another way to put this fact is that "the only way to empty your Inbox
is to delete everything you have ever received, and keep no records whatsoever";
I once read of IBM doing something resembling this
(making everyone leave their desk completely empty every night),
and it might be a great idea for anyone who wants to leave no trail
of nefarious activities, but it's surely unrealistic
for organizing work, where records of completed items
need to be kept and segregated from the few not yet done things
which we properly call our "Inbox" (or "To do" list).
I still don't see the answer for "Mail for $account name,"
but it's sounding as if exactly the same thing,
per account (the same as setting "Received"
to show messages from just one account at a time),
and if so it still leaves Opera in its unique position
as the only email client not having anything usable as an Inbox!
> Keep in mind you have the option of only viewing unread messages,
> and marking the message as read.
Nothing has changed, then, but to split "Received" and "Unread"
into one account at a time (which was already available anyway,
by flipping the "view" selector between accounts).
No progress, no recognition of Email as a tool for organizing work,
not just like a newsfeed/newsgroup/IM reader.
The ability to have things in an "Inbox" that are not "unread,"
and things that are "unread" but not important enough
to remain in my "Inbox," depends on having two
independent attributes, with four possible combined states,
and it must be so hard to accept the fact that one single binary bit
can not represent four different states, that one person after another
here keeps trying to claim a way to do it anyway.
All the suggestions being made, in vain, to try to ignore this fact,
are like people at a game of "musical chairs," where there is
one chair short of being enough for everyone to have a seat;
along comes one person after another with a "solution" --
everyone just stand up for a minute, now the one who didn't
have a chair sit down first, now when everyone else sits back down,
the problem will surely be solved, even without supplying
the eternally missing additional chair :)
> As far as I can see, the "Mail for $account name" views are no different then
> setting up a filter, to create an inbox, except that you don't have the risk
> of missing items due to the headers not matching the filter rules. In other
> words, I dont see any difference between the "Mail for $account name" views,
> and an inbox in a non-database email program.
Erase "Inbox" from Gmail, leaving just "All mail,"
and there you have Opera, still "not getting it."
> The only annoyance I find with the new views, is that every pop3 account gets
> one, and it cannot be hidden from the mail panel. This includes old pop3
> accounts that are never checked, but have been kept for message organization.
No problem -- just keep 9.27 (same solution as for "cache" :)
I still have to postpone for later a final summary of what an "Inbox" view
means,
for a newsgroup populated by people who've apparently never appreciated one,
and why every other idea in the world except actually having one
(which would be so easy to build in) can ever substitute for "the real thing."
--
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