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Re: [ontolog-forum] On Member Category & Mailing list message delivery

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Christopher Menzel <cmenzel@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 12:25:26 -0600
Message-id: <6AB3847A-BEF4-4111-A963-FB770C03579E@xxxxxxxx>
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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