End of classical interface

[n5bb]

Thanks for figuring that out, DS!

Bill

[Bamb0]

Originally Posted by Gsptlsnz

A feature not in the new version is the ability to send emails from any address. Previously you could click on the ID selector
and type any email addy in the empty window, now you can't.

They also dropped the 'Copy Email' function. Now you can only move emails. Not to mention the missing address book on the left.

When you want to email someone you have to type a letter in their name.

Yes things always get worse....... The BEST thing you guys can do is LEAVE FASTMAIL!!!!!! -- Staying there only shows them they can walk all over people and do what they want!!!

If several hundred paying customers left it may be a different story!!

[n5bb]

Just so readers of this thread are not confused, the three complaints quoted in the previous post are not missing from the current Fastmail user interface. Here is how you perform those actions:

• Custom From address
  From the help: How do I set a custom "From" address?
• Copy email feature
  From the help: Copy/Move messages between folders
• Sending without entering part of recipient name
  • I find it's very easy to just enter a few characters of the first and last name to find a contact. For instance, to find Mary Tran you can type "ma tr", which finds all contacts which have a name (first or last or nickname) starting with the two characters "ma" and "tr".
  • If you want to use a list of addresses instead, then open your Address Book in a new browser window or tab and be sure you have previously pinned your most important contacts. You also need to select the Keep pinned on top icon at the top. See:
    https://www.fastmail.com/help/contacts/usage.html#pin
  • Once you have that all set up one time, you can select (click the checkbox at the left of the name) one or more contacts at the top (remember that you have pinned your important contacts) and click Compose at the top of the Address Book screen. A new Compose window will appear and those selected addresses will be added to the To addressing field.

Of course, Fastmail has already discontinued the classic interface after months of advanced notice to those using that old interface, and I assume that everyone who insists that they can't use the current interface has either closed their account or is not using it any more. The Fastmail Terms Of Service section 8.1 states that there are no guaranteed refunds, although Fastmail may give you a refund at their discretion.

You can close your account at any time, and all data will be permanently deleted after 7 days. After you ask for deletion, you are immediately logged out. If you log back in, you will see a warning message at the bottom:
IMPORTANT: This account is scheduled to be deleted within the next 7 days.

I don't know how Fastmail would know that you had left their service due to the loss of the classic interface, unless they see a huge wave of account closings in the past few days. Closing your account won't affect their future revenue until any paid account you have runs out and you don't renew. If you won't renew, Fastmail should be happy if you close your account immediately, since they don't have to provide services to you for more than 7 days!

Bill

[brong]

Originally Posted by Gsptlsnz

A feature not in the new version is the ability to send emails from any address. Previously you could click on the ID selector
and type any email addy in the empty window, now you can't.

This is deliberate, and is only going to be locked down more over time as the internet moves towards increased sender security. With DMARC policies, DKIM and SPF, sending from arbitrary addresses is likely to be rejected and be bad for our sender reputation. You will eventually have to prove that you can receive from an address and that the sending settings are aligned before using it. Other email providers are doing the same, and it's in reaction to an evolving email standards landscape.

Meanwhile, arbitrary local parts are easy enough, just create an identity with an email address of *@example.com and you will be able to edit the part before the @.

[joe_devore]

Hi Brong!

I'll get right to the point :P
HOW much $,$$$.$$ is it gonna take to get those three features I depend on back? lol

[Gsptlsnz]

I installed the Fox add-on "Stylish" and the new interface looks much better. Anyone who dislikes the new look should try this!

[joe_devore]

Originally Posted by Gsptlsnz

I installed the Fox add-on "Stylish" and the new interface looks much better. Anyone who dislikes the new look should try this!

lol I already tried stylish to get back the ever present folder counts..
it was clutter mess!

Stylish = "# messages"
Classic UI = "(NEW/total)" aligned to the right margin so they were out of the way of the folder names for less clutter...

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by joe_devore

lol I already tried stylish to get back the ever present folder counts..
it was clutter mess!

Stylish = "# messages"
Classic UI = "(NEW/total)" aligned to the right margin so they were out of the way of the folder names for less clutter...

I have asked this before, but I do not think you have answered. How does the lack of total message counts (not unread message counts which are actually clearer in the current interface) impact on your everyday email activities? What do you do differently based on knowing a particular folder has 67 messages rather than 66? Is it that you have receiving rules that file into folder while turning off the unread state? If so, surely just leaving the unread state will allow you to see easily when new messages are received.

[joe_devore]

I just prefer it that way..
(NEW(ie. BOLD)/total) aligned to the right margin of every folder...

every once and a while (1-15 minutes or so)
I will at least in the Classic UI.. I would hit the refresh button..
and make a quick 1.5 second glance up the folder tree,
checking totals and seeing if there was any new messages...
because the NEW was in bold it was easy to tell the difference...

In the Classic UI you could still use the teaks system via the file storage:
(rest in peace Classic UI you are missed )

FILES - > custom-ui -> css --> tweaks.css

/* Show message counts */
/* Align Message totals to right Margin */
.messageTotal  { display: inline !important; }
.messageCounts { position: absolute; right: 0; }
a.empty { right: 75px !important; }

/* PROFESSIONAL BLUE STYLESHEET */
h2 { background-color: #ccc !important; color: #000 !important }
.statusMessage { background-color: #CCFF99 !important }
#copyright { background-color: #155D96 !important }
#pageHeader { background-color: #155D96 !important }
.actions { background-color: #9AB4D1 !important }
.contentTable th  { background-color: #ccc !important; }
.contentTable th a { color: #000 !important }
#message dl { background-color: #eee !important }
#navigation a:hover { background-color: #CDDAE9 !important }

AS you can see the tweaks given to me many years ago..
probably by Brong himself.
and since the NEW UI is mostly JAVA SCRIPT now...

it should be easy to add these features back in... more or less... and like I mentioned a few times in this thread.... lol ;p my best suggestion was to re add these "requested features" as tick-able options in the folder settings page.. that way they would be only visible to those wanting them

yeah I have all email sorting set to file into the almost 20 folders I have... I do not set to make read...
as for folders the one one set to be invisible unless the is crap in it is the SPAM/JUNK folder...

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by joe_devore

I just prefer it that way..
(NEW(ie. BOLD)/total) aligned to the right margin of every folder...

every once and a while (1-15 minutes or so)
I will at least in the Classic UI.. I would hit the refresh button..
and make a quick 1.5 second glance up the folder tree,
checking totals and seeing if there was any new messages...
because the NEW was in bold it was easy to tell the difference...

In the Classic UI you could still use the teaks system via the file storage:
(rest in peace Classic UI you are missed )

FILES - > custom-ui -> css --> tweaks.css

/* Show message counts */
/* Align Message totals to right Margin */
.messageTotal  { display: inline !important; }
.messageCounts { position: absolute; right: 0; }
a.empty { right: 75px !important; }

/* PROFESSIONAL BLUE STYLESHEET */
h2 { background-color: #ccc !important; color: #000 !important }
.statusMessage { background-color: #CCFF99 !important }
#copyright { background-color: #155D96 !important }
#pageHeader { background-color: #155D96 !important }
.actions { background-color: #9AB4D1 !important }
.contentTable th  { background-color: #ccc !important; }
.contentTable th a { color: #000 !important }
#message dl { background-color: #eee !important }
#navigation a:hover { background-color: #CDDAE9 !important }

AS you can see the tweaks given to me many years ago..
probably by Brong himself... I am pretty sure they are JAVA SCRIPT...
and since the NEW UI is mostly JAVA SCRIPT now...

it should be easy to add these features back in... more or less... and like I mentioned a few times in this thread.... lol ;p my best suggestion was to re add these "requested features" as tick-able options in the folder settings page.. that way they would be only visible to those wanting them

yeah I have all email sorting set to file into the almost 20 folders I have... I do not set to make read...
as for folders the one one set to be invisable unless the is crap in it is the SPAM/JUNK folder...

For information, the tweaks you cite are CSS not JavaScript.

Your answer does still not explain why you need to see folder totals at all. I agree that unread counts are important, but (as I mentioned before) those show up even more clearly in the current interface.

In the past, I used tweaks in the classic interface to make folders with unread counts show up in red. I find such tricks unnecessary in the current interface as they are obvious without any such trick. The fact that I do not need to continually refresh the window manually is also something I welcome.

[joe_devore]

Originally Posted by BritTim

For information, the tweaks you cite are CSS not JavaScript.

Your answer does still not explain why you need to see folder totals at all. I agree that unread counts are important, but (as I mentioned before) those show up even more clearly in the current interface.

In the past, I used tweaks in the classic interface to make folders with unread counts show up in red. I find such tricks unnecessary in the current interface as they are obvious without any such trick. The fact that I do not need to continually refresh the window manually is also something I welcome.

right!.. that was obvious... I just forgot which type of script I was thinking of..

totals also remind me where I put stuff based on counts.. ex.
I have 3 or more emails currently tmp saved in a secondary inbox specifically used for PayPal, Bank, Amazon.com, and other online stuff..
for my current Amazon.com order in progress...

[BritTim]

Originally Posted by joe_devore

right!.. that was obvious... I just forgot which type of script I was thinking of..

totals also remind me where I put stuff based on counts.. ex.
I have 3 or more emails currently tmp saved in a secondary inbox specifically used for PayPal, Bank, Amazon.com, and other online stuff..
for my current Amazon.com order in progress...

One suggestion there is to ensure the message is still marked unread if you know you will want to refer back to it. I have a holding folder for messages requiring further non urgent action without keeping them in unread status. However, I always have a pretty good idea of how many messages are in there, and certainly do not need a message count total to remind me to scan the folder periodically, and finalize actions where appropriate.

[joe_devore]

too each there own as they say

[ellentk]

[Originally posted by Gsptlsnz]
"A feature not in the new version is the ability to send emails from any address. Previously you could click on the ID selector and type any email addy in the empty window, now you can't."

Originally Posted by brong

This is deliberate, and is only going to be locked down more over time as the internet moves towards increased sender security. With DMARC policies, DKIM and SPF, sending from arbitrary addresses is likely to be rejected and be bad for our sender reputation. You will eventually have to prove that you can receive from an address and that the sending settings are aligned before using it. Other email providers are doing the same, and it's in reaction to an evolving email standards landscape.

Gee, and I thought the overreaction to criminals only stopped me from buying decongestant off the shelf and tearing tags off my mattress. Soon I will also be viewed with suspicion because I have different email addresses for different businesses and a personal email address too? Fastmail better turn me over to the Internet cops immediately.

[jhollington]

Originally Posted by ellentk

Gee, and I thought the overreaction to criminals only stopped me from buying decongestant off the shelf and tearing tags off my mattress. Soon I will also be viewed with suspicion because I have different email addresses for different businesses and a personal email address too? Fastmail better turn me over to the Internet cops immediately.

Not really — you'll only be "viewed with suspicion" if you're using an e-mail address that doesn't line up with where the message is being sent from.

This is not FastMail's doing, but rather simply the way the Internet works now. FastMail isn't saying they will view you wish suspicion; it's the rest of the Internet that will.

Of course, just because somebody is doing this doesn't make them a criminal or even simply a spammer, but the problem is that the machines don't know that.... mail systems are only designed to identify and block "forged" messages.... they don't care why they're forged.

In a nutshell, many mail systems publish a specific list of servers that are allowed to send mail for their domain. If mail comes from a server that's not on that list, it's viewed as suspicious. If enough "suspicious" messages come from a specific email server (e.g. FastMail), then there's a high probability that future communications will be blocked from that server, or at least be assigned higher spam scores.

"Arbitrary" in this case implies an address that you don't own and can't validate, which in the modern Internet is definitely a bad idea, and will end up with a high probability of getting rejected by other servers. That's not FastMai's problem at all — that's the way the Internet is now, and FastMail just wants to make sure they don't get blacklisted as an entire company for allowing these kinds of messages to be sent out.

If you're using your own domain, then any address at that domain will always be okay, which is why FastMail still allows for you to use a wildcard to customize the local part to whatever you want. However, it makes reasonable sense that you shouldn't just be able to type in whatever domain name you want and expect the Internet to be okay with it.

In fact, we're rapidly getting to a place where you're going to find that even sending messages with FastMail from a valid address you have on another service (e.g. setting your from address to Yahoo or Gmail) will cause problems — in fact in some cases it already does. FastMail's servers are definitely not going to be on Google's list of authorized servers to send from "gmail.com" so when you use a "gmail.com" from address to send from FastMail, that message automatically gets flagged as suspicious by whatever server it ends up at. This is why FastMail provides the ability to specify a different outgoing SMTP server for any secondary Identities you create — if you submit a message from your "gmail.com" address to the actual Gmail SMTP servers, then it will go out through those servers, and everything will be good.