new filter actions

[war17]

A new feature in Gmail filters is being released, which overrides the Spam Filter.

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by war17

A new feature in Gmail filters is being released, which overrides the Spam Filter.

That's good news, at least in theory, as the lack of either an explicit whitelist or blacklist, for example, has been one of my long-time complaints about Gmail.

However, one of my somewhat more recent complaints is that development of the older, simpler Gmail interface has seemed to have halted completely as far as I can tell, and I strongly suspect that this new feature you've referred to will be no exception, and will be available only to those using the much more bloated (in my experience) newer interface, therefore possibly making it all but useless to me and others who find the newer interface all but unusable.

And making this newer interface the only one any longer receiving any improvements (again, at least as far as I've noticed), unfortunately only brings Gmail closer to the "impracticality" of gmx.com for (some of) the same reasons. Although I suppose I can try to occasionally log into the newer interface if necessary to create/edit a filter, as long as it isn't necessary to do so frequently.

Of course, if I'm mistaken about this improvement only affecting the newer interface, then I'll retract my criticism. But I won't be holding my breath (if you'll excuse the cliche) while awaiting Gmail to make any improvements without requiring the use of a bloated interface in order to access them.

[DavidJ]

Originally Posted by war17

A new feature in Gmail filters is being released, which overrides the Spam Filter.

Could you point us to the official GMail announcement on this, or something similar, so that we can get the details?

Thanks.
D.

[war17]

DavidJ,

There is no official announcements. I heard it on Gmail Help Discussions group and see it in my filter option. As with most Gmail enhancements, it is just released without notice. There may be a write up in Gmail Blog.

[DavidJ]

OK, let's say that I'm logged into my GMail account, using a browser, and I'm looking at the contents of my inbox. How do I get from here to the gadget that activates the new filter?

T
D

[war17]

Click on Settings > Filter tab. Create new filter. A option will show to filter an address or domain. It a brand new feature, so you may not have it yet.

[xmailer]

I don't see it in my account yet. However, while it does sound as though this could effectively constitute a long overdue "whitelist", your brief description doesn't make it clear that it will necessarily override Gmail's spam filtering in general, as the filters have already long had the provision for filtering on addresses/domains in the 'From' and 'To' fields, have they not?

That is, it hasn't been a matter of their not providing enough options or criteria as such, but rather a matter of gmail effectively ignoring the user's preferences at its own whim, so to speak, when we might assume they feel that they "know better" than the user him/herself. (Which I might add only parenthetically here does little to dispel the "big brother" image which Gmail has seemed to have earned for itself among many.)

But of course, even if this does represent a true whitelist, merely whitelisting certain addresses or domains doesn't offer much confidence that the spam filters won't continue to override the user's personal filters which utilize criteria other than email addresses. It might be a start, but I see no need to add any new filter criteria or options to simply allow the user to override Gmail's spam filters just as they currently exist, either by simply allowing all of the users filters to override spam filtering and/or by allowing the user to turn spam filtering off altogether if s/he wishes, as many other services long have. Ergo, even while frequently boasting of their "innovation", I feel that Gmail is still way behind many other services with regard to some very basic features and functions.

But perhaps we've wandered a bit too far off-topic from the original subject of this thread, which had nothing directly to do with spam or spam filtering (or with Gmail, for that matter).

Edit: Just for the record, my "off-topic" reference in the last paragraph above was made before this thread was split off from this one and moved to the Gmail forum as per my request (Thanks, CyberSmurf).

[DavidJ]

Originally Posted by xmailer

I don't see it in my account yet.

Me neither.

D.

[zhak]

There are two filter screens, first is the 'Choose search criteria' screen, where you enter something in the 'from', 'to' or other field. Second, after clicking 'Next step', on the the 'Choose action' screen, you'll see:

[_] Skip the Inbox (Archive it)
[_] Mark as read
[_] Star it
[_] Apply the label: [Choose label... \/]
[_] Forward it to: [email address ]
[_] Delete it
[_] Never send it to Spam

When combined with forwarding, this should eliminate a long standing gripe that messages marked as spam were not forwarded.

[xmailer]

Thanks, that somewhat better clarifies it, although I've just checked again and I still don't have it. Again, assuming it's available in both the old and new interfaces, that is, as I haven't yet had the time (or patience) to check the latter.

[zhak]

Originally Posted by xmailer

Thanks, that somewhat better clarifies it, although I've just checked again and I still don't have it. Again, assuming it's available in both the old and new interfaces, that is, as I haven't yet had the time (or patience) to check the latter.

Now two filter actions exist in the newer version that do not exist in the older version: Mark as read and Never send it to Spam. However there are consequences to changing versions and editing your filters:

1. Creating the filter in the newer version and applying those two actions gives:
Matches: from:test
Do this: Mark as read, Apply label "Test", Never send it to Spam

2. Switching to older version still shows spam setting (rephrased) but no longer shows 'mark as read' setting:
Matches: from:test
Do this: Skip spam classifier, Apply label "Test"

3. Resetting to (1) above and switching to older version and editing a filter (just clicking 'edit' then 'next step' and 'update filter') causes both 'newer' actions to be removed from the filter definition:
Matches: from:test
Do this: Apply label "Test"

Just tested the filters. Changing to the older version does not cause your messages to no longer be 'marked as read', despite that action no longer being listed in the filter as in (2) above. So the functioning of the filter does not change when changing versions. Editing filters in the old version does remove the two newer actions from the filter definition, but it appears the actions continue to take effect. Also, if you have done this cross-version filter editing, and then go back and edit the filter in the 'newer version', those actions are now unchecked, so you must check them again or they will stop functioning.

While I'm not privy to why Gmail would not put these in the old version (except it makes sense that they might want people to stop using the old version) the behavior of the filters between the versions makes sense to me, sort of, except for the inconsistency of the filter showing the spam setting but not the 'mark as read' setting in (2).

[xmailer]

Okay, so I finally got around to changing to the new interface to see if I as yet had this new feature. After changing to the new interface, I clicked on the "Create a filter" link. Here's an image of the page that link brought me to:

http://images1.filecloud.com/742851/double_gmail.jpg

I'm not sure if I even dare proceed to see what I'll find on the filtering "action" page.

Good old "eternal beta" Gmail.

[zhak]

Originally Posted by xmailer

I'm not sure if I even dare proceed to see what I'll find on the filtering "action" page.

I think you've mentioned previously that you wished Gmail had compound filters.

[xmailer]

Originally Posted by zhak

I think you've mentioned previously that you wished Gmail had compound filters.

Was that me?
Was that me?

Nah...
Nah...