On Feb 5, 2007, at 4:38 AM, Jakub Kotowski wrote:
> I think that for most users there should be no point in switching to
> digest mode (with respect to good orientation in the mailbox). In
> most
> mail clients it is possible to create new folders in addition to the
> standard Inbox and then define filters to sort the incoming mails. (01)
This is a good solution if you use only one computer for all your
mail. But it can become unwieldy if you manage your email on
numerous machines, possibly with numerous clients, as you have to
make sure you use the same rules on each client. I myself, for
example, mostly use Mail.app on my OS X machine at home, mutt and
Mail.app on my laptop, mutt and KDE Mail on my office machine, and
occasionally a secure Web client when I'm traveling. I have around
15 different mailboxes into which I want to shunt incoming mail, so
it would would be a real pain to set up filters for each one (esp
because the filtering mechanisms vary from client to client). (02)
Fortunately, many (and I'm guessing most) ISP's these days run IMAP
mail servers (Yahoo surely being the largest example). Although you
can set up IMAP to work like POP, which simply keeps your mail in a
single queue for you to download, the glory of IMAP is that it lets
you store your mail and manage your mail folders on the server itself
(perhaps also, depending on the client, with the option of a local
mirror). On this approach, your client is just a window to the
server; your mail is always available and structured in exactly the
same way no matter where you are and no matter what client you use. (03)
Most relevantly for the issue at hand: Many (and I'm guessing most)
IMAP servers ALSO have mechanisms that enable you to do server-side
filtering: not only do you store and structure your mail on the
server, you can also set up filtering rules FOR THE SERVER that shunt
mail received on the server directly into your desired IMAP folders
(e.g.., "Ontolog Forum"). This way, you define only one set of
server-side filters, providing you with a consistent view of your
mail no matter how it is accessed, and enabling you to avoid having
to define different (possibly inconsistent) filters inside different
email clients. (04)
If you aren't familiar with IMAP and server-side filtering you might
consult your ISP or your local geek to learn how to take advantage of
it. (Ask them about "procmail" or "Sieve" filtering.) This might
look like more trouble than it's worth, and maybe for some folks it
is, but in my experience, after they've gotten IMAP + server-side
filtering set up, most folks wonder how they got by for so long
without it. (05)
Solicitously yours, (06)
Chris Menzel (07)
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