Conversational View

pengrus · 31 Aug 2006, 03:07 PM

I have stopped using fastmail, and switched to gmail only for the reason of Conversational View which saves me tons of time tracking my correspondence with client.

If Fastmail can add this feature, I will switch back, otherwise, we will let it expire....

NJSS · 31 Aug 2006, 05:08 PM

I am not a GMail user and must be misunderstanding the point you are making.

My understanding of Conversational mode, also known as linear, is that messages are displayed in chronological order, which of course FM can achieve.

Can you please elucidate ?

hadaso · 31 Aug 2006, 09:11 PM

What pengrus means is described as "Provide threaded view for Mailbox screen" in the coming enhancements page. It has been on that page for a very long time.

It means email messages are grouped with replies.

pengrus · 1 Sep 2006, 12:55 AM

Conversational View:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/screen2.html

It works like this:

If you are working with someone on a project, let's say "Legacy Pricing", then all of the emails between the senders are grouped in one long thread, so whenever you want to look up the history of what you have been discussing, you can just open one thread, and it's all there.

In effect, it makes your mailbox clean. With no conversational view, your email messages on that project maybe 100 spread all over by the time sent. But with conversational view, it's all together in one thread, and you can collapse or expand the content. So that is where the efficiency come in.

It sounds like a small feature, but once you experimented, you cannot live without it. This is my single biggest productivity booster.

I was a very active FastMail user because whereever I go, I can use fastmail FAST! But with Gmail conversation view, my email work flow is FASTER than fastmail. And it is really not worth it at all to use FASTMAIL again to lose this productivity.

For some reason, fastmail lost it's drive to innovation. They sound like they are just sitting on there enjoying their reputation without introducing meaningful feature.

Who cares about the Text message? Who cares about photo gallery? Wake up fastmail! You got to do what you are best. Don't try to be everything. You will lose your users in no time to other real Innovative email service providers.

And look at this old ugly fastmail front page - that doesn't leave any good impression to visitors. There is a way to make it simple and elegant. However, talk the talk, and no walk the walk.

I am fairly dissapointted.

PaulRenegar · 1 Sep 2006, 06:09 AM

Although the webmail client doesn't have the capabillity to organize emails by thread/conversation, there are several email clients that you can use that support this capability.

In Windows, I know that Outlook 2003 and Thunderbird do this

For Mac OSX, Mail.app does this, as well as Entourage and Thunderbird

pengrus · 1 Sep 2006, 06:29 AM

If you compared Outlook 2003 to Gmail conversation view, you will know they are far different from each other. I found outlook 2003 thread view useless. Give it a try, and you will see why.

As of Thunderbird, it is not practical, we are not using them because we rely on outlook's calendar, address book, notes sync function with our server....

To use fastmail, we would like to utilize its web interface, not with the help of mail client...

**Sherry** · 1 Sep 2006, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pengrus
For some reason, fastmail lost it's drive to innovation. They sound like they are just sitting on there enjoying their reputation without introducing meaningful feature.

Hmmm, maybe you haven’t been with FM very long or don't keep up with the FM forums or you would know they have put in "Many" enhancements to the "email" service continually. I'm not going to find/list all of them that were just in 2006 as others already have listed some and I did it when someone complained, I think, toward the end of 2005.

Sherry

pengrus · 1 Sep 2006, 01:46 PM

Sherry,

You are right, I do not check the forum and the site every day. I check them occassionally.

All I can say is your expectation and mine are different. And your standard for innovation and mine are also different.

I am sharing with them and users on what is the deal breaker for me given other available service.

**Sherry** · 1 Sep 2006, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pengrus
All I can say is your expectation and mine are different. And your standard for innovation and mine are also different.

I'm thinking you maybe referring to things like the Photo Gallery and such? I'm talking about things like the ability to warn you of a "phishing" email before you click on the link or handling the type of messages you get when you get hundreds of bounced emails sent to you because spammers used your email address as the From. I'd say those and similar type features are email related and very important added features... Many things are done by one person (like the Photo Gallery) while Rob and others are working on the Domain Split and the email Replicated service and such so it didn't take away anything from more serious things they are doing and added a "lot" of enjoyment to many using FM while they continue to work on more important things.

Anyway, as you said, we just see things differently.

Sherry

registered_user · 2 Sep 2006, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pengrus
If you compared Outlook 2003 to Gmail conversation view, you will know they are far different from each other. I found outlook 2003 thread view useless. Give it a try, and you will see why.

The reason for this is pretty simple and universal. Nobody's threaded message view (that's what it's generally called by the way) is as good as GMail's because google is using a pretty advanced set of heuristics for defining what a "conversation" is. The problem of threading messages is essentially a search problem, and Google has a lot of experience in search problems. They've come up with a pretty good (and from what I hear, a pretty resource intensive) solution and they aren't sharing it with anybody. It's only a matter of time before other clients catch up, but for now, "advantage Google".

Quote:

As of Thunderbird, it is not practical, we are not using them because we rely on outlook's calendar, address book, notes sync function with our server....

To use fastmail, we would like to utilize its web interface, not with the help of mail client...

So you're using Outlook for everything except mail? Well, personally I think you made a good choice not to use Outlook for mail, but I don't see why using Outlook for its other functions limits you to using only webmail for mail. You can fire up a web browser to check your mail, or you can fire up an email client. Either way, you're not using Outlook for mail so why does the use of Outlook determine this one way or another?

31 Aug 2006, 03:07 PM	#1
pengrus Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 50	Conversational View I have stopped using fastmail, and switched to gmail only for the reason of Conversational View which saves me tons of time tracking my correspondence with client. If Fastmail can add this feature, I will switch back, otherwise, we will let it expire....

31 Aug 2006, 05:08 PM	#2
NJSS Master of the @ Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Hampshire, UK Posts: 1,238	Conversational View ? I am not a GMail user and must be misunderstanding the point you are making. My understanding of Conversational mode, also known as linear, is that messages are displayed in chronological order, which of course FM can achieve. Can you please elucidate ?

31 Aug 2006, 09:11 PM	#3
hadaso The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Holon, Israel. Posts: 4,863	What pengrus means is described as "Provide threaded view for Mailbox screen" in the coming enhancements page. It has been on that page for a very long time. It means email messages are grouped with replies.

1 Sep 2006, 12:55 AM	#4
pengrus Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 50	Conversational View: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/screen2.html It works like this: If you are working with someone on a project, let's say "Legacy Pricing", then all of the emails between the senders are grouped in one long thread, so whenever you want to look up the history of what you have been discussing, you can just open one thread, and it's all there. In effect, it makes your mailbox clean. With no conversational view, your email messages on that project maybe 100 spread all over by the time sent. But with conversational view, it's all together in one thread, and you can collapse or expand the content. So that is where the efficiency come in. It sounds like a small feature, but once you experimented, you cannot live without it. This is my single biggest productivity booster. I was a very active FastMail user because whereever I go, I can use fastmail FAST! But with Gmail conversation view, my email work flow is FASTER than fastmail. And it is really not worth it at all to use FASTMAIL again to lose this productivity. For some reason, fastmail lost it's drive to innovation. They sound like they are just sitting on there enjoying their reputation without introducing meaningful feature. Who cares about the Text message? Who cares about photo gallery? Wake up fastmail! You got to do what you are best. Don't try to be everything. You will lose your users in no time to other real Innovative email service providers. And look at this old ugly fastmail front page - that doesn't leave any good impression to visitors. There is a way to make it simple and elegant. However, talk the talk, and no walk the walk. I am fairly dissapointted.

1 Sep 2006, 06:09 AM	#5
PaulRenegar Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 8	Although the webmail client doesn't have the capabillity to organize emails by thread/conversation, there are several email clients that you can use that support this capability. In Windows, I know that Outlook 2003 and Thunderbird do this For Mac OSX, Mail.app does this, as well as Entourage and Thunderbird

1 Sep 2006, 06:29 AM	#6
pengrus Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 50	If you compared Outlook 2003 to Gmail conversation view, you will know they are far different from each other. I found outlook 2003 thread view useless. Give it a try, and you will see why. As of Thunderbird, it is not practical, we are not using them because we rely on outlook's calendar, address book, notes sync function with our server.... To use fastmail, we would like to utilize its web interface, not with the help of mail client...

1 Sep 2006, 01:46 PM	#8
pengrus Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 50	Sherry, You are right, I do not check the forum and the site every day. I check them occassionally. All I can say is your expectation and mine are different. And your standard for innovation and mine are also different. I am sharing with them and users on what is the deal breaker for me given other available service.