MailSnare recommended, FM not ...

[mrg]

Hmm it'd be interesting to know why she doesn't recommend FM anymore. In fact, I think her page was one of the reasons I signed up with FM and the service hasn't (IMHO) declined since then.

Somehow I get the feeling that warning #4 is #1 so to speak, but maybe it's just my tiny paranoidal mind playing me a trick.

[oysterquartz]

Originally posted by kchess79
I thought any HTML editor only worked with IE? Are there any non-IE browsers that let you use HTML editor?

You are correct. So if FM ever introduces HTML composition, it would only by an IE only proposition.

[oysterquartz]

Originally posted by bitequator

Anyways, I'm just curious why there aren't more services offering FM's power features (custom Sieve, versatile addressing, etc)? Start w/ Cyrus, get ManageSieve/ACAP support to upload Sieve scripts, do all the custom work FM did, voila. (Hmm did I just answer my own question?)

It's just that when you set up your own mail server there are a wealth of standard features available (like "email domain forwarding"), how come not more commercial email services expose that full featureset to their customers (though I know again requiring custom coding and design logistics to set up)?

I think that the issue is that most users do not want to have to deal with the complexity of Sieve, etc. One of the major criticisms that I've heard repeatedly (when introducing people to several different webmail services) was the "complexity" and lack of intuitiveness of FM vs. other webmail interfaces.

Most people just want 1 userid, maybe some aliases (I'm also dubious that being to critical to most), effective spam filtering which is a one button turn on proposition, and adequate space.

I'd argue that the spam filtering in FM is too complicated (or was more so prior to the new system for Full and Enhanced), and that the Member level filtering is next to useless and certainly no where near as effective as Yahoo's free (or even Hotmail for that matter) spam filter. Just wait until FM gets really targeted by spammers, and see how effective Guest or Member level filtering is ... (hint, its not). And telling users that they can set their "own" Sieve rules is ridiculous IMO.

I have paid accounts at several services, but still think that most people actually prefer Yahoo! or (God forbid) Hotmail's interfaces. Take away the annoying adverts, and Yahoo's 6 MB with POP (other country Yahoo!s) is excellent for the vast majority of people.

Its the designers job to hide complexity behind an intuitive and simple GUI. Not to subject users to yet another tutorial on the use of Sieve, etc. Most people have neither the time or inclination to learn another system ...

[bitequator]

Thanks for the replies...

Let's expand on the mentioned example, "email domain forwarding" (sorry I don't know the proper term for it). IIRC JeffK had asked about that in the past.

The user would just specify *@domain1.com -> *@domain2.com . So sending to joe@domain1.com would automatically forward to joe@domain2.com. Mail to bob@domain1.com forwards to bob@domain2.com. Etc.

If this is a universal standard feature in all mail servers, why don't more email services offer it to their customers?

[redmyrlin]

Originally posted by oysterquartz

You are correct. So if FM ever introduces HTML composition, it would only by an IE only proposition.

You are both mistaken. SquirrelMail offers an HTML-mail plugin that allows HTML email composition and works with at least Mozilla Firebird. I know. I've used it.

[Mikedp]

Ahh..correct..I used mailsnare, it was fine, just not many features back when I looked at it...True, I was thinking of Oddpost.

And I never said MS was bad, it is not MS problem, it is the people the choose to write for one browser (even if it is #1 by far) instead of making it for all..

So sorry to my confusion, Mailsnare is fine if you need all those features ( I don't), MS is fine to, but open the web for ALL browsers, not specific ones.

Sorry Mailsnare, getting you confused with Oddpost.

[kchess79]

Originally posted by redmyrlin
You are correct. So if FM ever introduces HTML composition, it would only by an IE only proposition.

You are both mistaken. SquirrelMail offers an HTML-mail plugin that allows HTML email composition and works with at least Mozilla Firebird. I know. I've used it. [/quote]

Hey, that does work! Doesn't seem to work with MailSnare, but my SmileGlobal Squirrelmail account works just fine (it has HTML)...

[oysterquartz]

Originally posted by redmyrlin
You are correct. So if FM ever introduces HTML composition, it would only by an IE only proposition.

You are both mistaken. SquirrelMail offers an HTML-mail plugin that allows HTML email composition and works with at least Mozilla Firebird. I know. I've used it. [/quote]

Thanks for the tip. Can you suggest some SquirrelMail services where I can see this feature?

[kchess79]

Originally posted by oysterquartz
You are both mistaken. SquirrelMail offers an HTML-mail plugin that allows HTML email composition and works with at least Mozilla Firebird. I know. I've used it.

Thanks for the tip. Can you suggest some SquirrelMail services where I can see this feature?

Does Organizer.ro still have this feature? Other than that, the only one I've run across that has it is SmileGlobal and they're a pay account.

[redmyrlin]

Originally posted by oysterquartz
Thanks for the tip. Can you suggest some SquirrelMail services where I can see this feature?

Well, it's not really a "sevice" as such, but you could open an account at the PromptPost project.

[oysterquartz]

Just noticed that Squirrel HTML really only supported IE 5.5 and up, prior to Moz 1.4 ...

"This plugin allows users with IE 5.5 and above to compose and send their email in HTML format. The renderer supposedly supports newer versions of Mozilla, although this is alpha at best. Get in touch if you need help playing around with this plugin in Mozilla."

Thanks for the tip redmyrlin ... and how might one open a PP account?

As an aside, I hear that fusemail may be getting some very good press shortly, and they use Squirrel Mail with a modified interface. Does anyone know the relative global implementation levels (approximate) between Horde/IMP and SquirrelMail?

[redmyrlin]

Originally posted by oysterquartz
"This plugin allows users with IE 5.5 and above to compose and send their email in HTML format. The renderer supposedly supports newer versions of Mozilla, although this is alpha at best. Get in touch if you need help playing around with this plugin in Mozilla."

Thanks for the tip redmyrlin ... and how might one open a PP account?

Yes, the plug-in is quite new, but I've found it to work OK with Mozilla Firebird (my browser of choice).
If you want to request an account with PPproj just click on my WWW link.

[marc@ms]

Originally posted by Mikedp
Ahh..correct..I used mailsnare, it was fine, just not many features back when I looked at it...True, I was thinking of Oddpost.

Not many features?. Imho MS has many more features than FM and Runbox together. Which feature are you missing with MS .... ? Please don't mention SIEVE, because for people who don't wan't (or aren't able) to program a script MS has far more powerfull filtering options.

Originally posted by Mikedp
So sorry to my confusion, Mailsnare is fine if you need all those features ( I don't), MS is fine to, but open the web for ALL browsers, not specific ones.

Sorry Mailsnare, getting you confused with Oddpost.

It's already said several times .... but here we go again: MS has two webmail interfaces: IMP and VO. Every bit of IMP works in any browser, so you can't have a problem there!. VO works in every browser also, except for one part and that is the HTML editor; but in VO you can still choose the Text editor instead.

So it's not right to say that MS is only written for IE. So you can't compare it with OddPost.

I did choose MS because it has the most features for the lowest price. If you can convince me that an other service offers me more (for the same price), then I'll be glad to hear about that one; but I doubt that.

Its good to see people with such enthusiasm about their email service! Well I would say email is email, no big deal, its only text messages. (more interesting just to ring them on the phone)

dan

[kchess79]

Originally posted by Stormcrow
Its good to see people with such enthusiasm about their email service! Well I would say email is email, no big deal, its only text messages. (more interesting just to ring them on the phone)

dan

I despise my phone. Now that we have DSL instead of dialup, I sometimes use it as a paperweight. Email gives me time to think before saying things I would probably regret. If I can't communicate with someone by email, we probably won't talk much. I'll write snailmail letters before I phone someone. I wrote my mother a letter the other day because her Hotmail was giving her trouble and I hate the phone. Now she thinks I'm officially crazy--especially since I only live about 15 minutes from her house