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flummeryToday has been largely consumed with email problems. I would not have guessed simply transferring the email to the new computer and making sure everything was okay could take this long, but everytime I turn around, I find something new and dismaying.
1) Email is not gone until it's gone:
"Mom, are you running maintenance on this email program?"
"Am I doing what?"
"Are you compacting the mailboxes after you delete messages."
"It compresses automatically everytime I close the program."
"I... don't think it does."
"It SAYS it does."
"I'm going to run maintenance on this."
"There's nothing to delete!"
....
"Well, we've just regained 347 mbs of space."
"Okay, what's maintenance, again?"
2) Filters are not meant to be used this way:
I asked my Mom is she was using filters. She said no. I looked in dismay at her 217 or so odd different mailboxes, and said:
"I think you'd be happier with filters."
"But then how would I know if there was new email?"
"Well, the new mail comes in as black, and you can click on this little "unread mail" tab, and it will show you all the mailboxes with new mail."
This convinced her to give filters a try. I created a filter for mail from myself, to show her how it worked, and then sent her email. It failed to filter. I tried it again. I fiddled with it. No filtering. I stared.
Mom says smugly "Oh yeah, THIS is why I don't use filters. You tried to get me to use them before, but they don't work!"
Me: "I never DID."
Mom: "Yes, I built lots of filters before."
I looked at her in suspicion and dread, and went into the filters, to see what was there. There were DOZENS and DOZENS of filters already in place, including one with my name, set at a higher priority.
"This is why the filter I just created doesn't work," I pointed out.
"Well, that one doesn't work either," she replied.
I opened it and took a look. "It's pointing to the inbox," I remarked, mystified.
"That's how I make sure mail I want to read gets to the inbox," was her logical answer.
I sat and thought about this for a while. The thinking didn't help so much. I asked her, knowing I'd regret it:
"Doesn't mail NORMALLY go to the inbox?"
"No, a lot of it goes to the trash, because of the filters to get rid of spam."
I searched through all her filters. Half were pointing to the inbox, the rest to the trash can. I checked out the trash. There was an awful lot of legitimate email in there. So then I put my head down for a while, and when I recovered, we ripped out every single filter, and started over with a lesson on What Filters Are, and How they Work. That took a while.
3) Why did we invent email, again?
This war, I lost, but at least we negotiated a truce of sorts. While poking around to see what else might be wrong, I spotted 28 messages in the outbox.
"Who are all these people you're writing too?"
"Oh, those are to myself."
"They're..."
"I keep information in the mail program, and write it out, and send it to myself."
"But none of these have been sent, it's all in the OUTBOX."
"I move it there to keep track of it, but it got too full, so I created OUTBOX1 and put some of it in there."
"But outbox is for mail that has NOT YET BEEN SENT."
"Well, sometimes I accidentally send it to myself again, because of that."
I convinced her to move these messages to a DRAFTS mailbox. And then I had to go take a nap.
1) Email is not gone until it's gone:
"Mom, are you running maintenance on this email program?"
"Am I doing what?"
"Are you compacting the mailboxes after you delete messages."
"It compresses automatically everytime I close the program."
"I... don't think it does."
"It SAYS it does."
"I'm going to run maintenance on this."
"There's nothing to delete!"
....
"Well, we've just regained 347 mbs of space."
"Okay, what's maintenance, again?"
2) Filters are not meant to be used this way:
I asked my Mom is she was using filters. She said no. I looked in dismay at her 217 or so odd different mailboxes, and said:
"I think you'd be happier with filters."
"But then how would I know if there was new email?"
"Well, the new mail comes in as black, and you can click on this little "unread mail" tab, and it will show you all the mailboxes with new mail."
This convinced her to give filters a try. I created a filter for mail from myself, to show her how it worked, and then sent her email. It failed to filter. I tried it again. I fiddled with it. No filtering. I stared.
Mom says smugly "Oh yeah, THIS is why I don't use filters. You tried to get me to use them before, but they don't work!"
Me: "I never DID."
Mom: "Yes, I built lots of filters before."
I looked at her in suspicion and dread, and went into the filters, to see what was there. There were DOZENS and DOZENS of filters already in place, including one with my name, set at a higher priority.
"This is why the filter I just created doesn't work," I pointed out.
"Well, that one doesn't work either," she replied.
I opened it and took a look. "It's pointing to the inbox," I remarked, mystified.
"That's how I make sure mail I want to read gets to the inbox," was her logical answer.
I sat and thought about this for a while. The thinking didn't help so much. I asked her, knowing I'd regret it:
"Doesn't mail NORMALLY go to the inbox?"
"No, a lot of it goes to the trash, because of the filters to get rid of spam."
I searched through all her filters. Half were pointing to the inbox, the rest to the trash can. I checked out the trash. There was an awful lot of legitimate email in there. So then I put my head down for a while, and when I recovered, we ripped out every single filter, and started over with a lesson on What Filters Are, and How they Work. That took a while.
3) Why did we invent email, again?
This war, I lost, but at least we negotiated a truce of sorts. While poking around to see what else might be wrong, I spotted 28 messages in the outbox.
"Who are all these people you're writing too?"
"Oh, those are to myself."
"They're..."
"I keep information in the mail program, and write it out, and send it to myself."
"But none of these have been sent, it's all in the OUTBOX."
"I move it there to keep track of it, but it got too full, so I created OUTBOX1 and put some of it in there."
"But outbox is for mail that has NOT YET BEEN SENT."
"Well, sometimes I accidentally send it to myself again, because of that."
I convinced her to move these messages to a DRAFTS mailbox. And then I had to go take a nap.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 04:54 pm (UTC)(is wordless.)
no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 05:31 pm (UTC)and give it to Margieand issue her a quill pen?no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 06:11 pm (UTC)Your mom is worse than my mom.
I am so sorry.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-14 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-15 06:29 pm (UTC)But really, I feel your pain. It only took me 45 minutes over the phone to figure out the problem and convince my mom that her ISP had not lost her email. It was another 20 to show her how to reset her homepage to her ISP's webmail page and "find" her mail again.