Personalities

robmueller · 6 Dec 2001, 09:02 AM

OK, I'm just about to start work on 'Personalities'. These are going to replace the Signatures screen, and that yukky 'Send From Addresses' thing on the Preferences screen.

Now I know a few people aren't going to be happy about this (they like having completely separate signatures and from addresses) but this has been a pretty heavily requested feature and makes a lot of sense so we're going with it. Sorry to those not happy, congrats to those who are...

Anyway, each personality will have:[list=1][*]Display name (name to display in the popup on the compose screen)[*]Full Name (to attach to email, can leave blank if none)[*]Email address (used as the From and Reply-To fields)[*]Signature[*]Optional list of extra email addresses to associate with this personality[*]Default folder to store any sent item into (or defer/none)[/list=1]
More info:

For the optional extra email addresses, if you reply to a message sent to any of these addresses, it will default to using this personality on the compose screen
On the compose screen, we'll add a pop up menu of Folders to store the sent item into. I think the logic of the default folder to choose will work like this:

If replying to a message sent to an address identified with a personality, look at the 'store folder'. If specified, use that, if defer/none keep going
If replying to a message not in the Inbox, set default folder to that folder
Otherwise default to Sent Items

The only extra thing I can think of that would be neat, when you select a 'Personality' from the pop up menu on the Compose screen, if it has a 'store sent item' folder associated with it, we use some JS to change the folder as well.

Phew, hope that makes sense. Any comments, questions, suggestions?

Rob

DippyTwitty · 6 Dec 2001, 09:28 AM

I like where you're going with this - it may seem subtle, but I really appreciate the logic of putting replies in the same folder they came in (when not the inbox) so we can keep a sort of 'thread' together.

I would like to use the rules to separate incoming emails by the address they came to. But if you get the personalities in there, I wonder if you could specify an 'Inbox' folder for that personality, which would really make more sense than specifying the criteria in two different places. Do you think that would be reasonable?

The next-best thing to that would be a rule that specifically says "If recipient is personality 'X' then ...."

Great work, don't stop!

Dip

Jeremy Howard · 6 Dec 2001, 09:39 AM

Yes, I like the idea of a personality having both an "Inbox" and a "Sent Items". Then all of your mailing lists can be associated with an Inbox so you don't have to use the Define Rules screen for this.

And, when you reply to a message in a personality's inbox, the Sent Item will get put in that personality's Sent Items folder. Unlike Dip, I don't want to have my sent messages in the same folder as received--this way however we're both happy, because Dip can set his inbox and Sent Items to the same folder for a personality.

robmueller · 6 Dec 2001, 09:53 AM

I like it, should it automatically create a rule that ends up on the rules screen, or should it be a 'hidden' rule somehow? Could that be confusing?

Rob

Jeremy Howard · 6 Dec 2001, 10:06 AM

It doesn't get shown in the Define Rules screen. It does get added to the filter script, after all other rules. I don't think this need be confusing--each personality has an 'Inbox' that you can define; there's no particular reason why this has to use the same interface as 'Define Rules', IMHO.

ikxu · 6 Dec 2001, 10:14 AM

All this sound confusing to me as I am not a technical person.
I just like an email service that is simple to use and everything is just there. I feel a bit confused right now

ikxu

robmueller · 6 Dec 2001, 10:22 AM

Basically what we're saying is that for a particular personality you can associate a separate 'inbox' and 'sent items' folder for that personality.

Then any email that arrives for that personality (identified by email address) goes into 'their' inbox, and any email sent with that personality goes into 'their' sent items folder.

In some respects it's like having separate email accounts, but without the hassle of having to login separately, separate preferences, separate rules, etc

Hmmm, maybe we can associate aliases with personalities in some way as well...

Rob

Jeremy Howard · 6 Dec 2001, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by robmueller
Hmmm, maybe we can associate aliases with personalities in some way as well...

That's my sneaky master plan... I'm hoping that this personalities concept is going to nicely fit in with providing people the ability to add domains, aliases, etc.

But now we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Ikxu: Don't worry about it--this personalities thing will make FastMail.FM easier to use, not harder. It's just that discussing this stuff in abstract gets a bit complex... These enhancements will simplify FastMail.FM's interface, but also make it possible for more advanced users to manage their multiple aliases and mailing lists more flexibly.

ikxu · 6 Dec 2001, 09:29 PM

Thank you Rob for explaining it in English

Thank you Jeremy for the words of assurance

I know that if I don't understand something I can always post my questions and concerns and get answers from you guys as well as from others.
iku

ustewjt · 7 Dec 2001, 05:33 AM

Having separate Inboxes and Personalities for each of the different email accounts I manage would be wonderful!
Looking forward to it!

**Shelded** · 7 Dec 2001, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
That's my sneaky master plan... I'm hoping that this personalities concept is going to nicely fit in with providing people the ability to add domains, aliases, etc.

Sneaky, nothing.

This is obvious to those of us who have a lot of addresses and or domains. This seems to save the effort of setting up rules.

Are you considering a family or group interface to this so the head of house can see all the mail whereas the children are limited to their own respective folders? This would be something that would knock the wheels off Outhouse Egress

because the multiple identity thing is weak there.

Jeremy Howard · 7 Dec 2001, 05:25 PM

Yeah Lookout Excess isn't too strong in this area...

And yep, this kinda family thing is planned. It'll be seen first for our co-brand/outsource clients, so that they can manage their domains and users.

I've still got that PM you sent me a month or two back, Shelded, and that's certainly helped our thinking about how to set this up...

OtaconTV · 9 Dec 2001, 04:58 AM

Sort of unrelated but it has to do with signatures. Can you add a way to let us add images in signatures like in a forum? Not the actuall image though. Something like a tag like this:

[image]http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/OtaconTV/Path.gif[image]

Jeremy Howard · 9 Dec 2001, 06:01 AM

Yes definitely. We won't get on to this for a couple of months though--when we add HTML composition we'll let people insert pictures using either a graphical interface, or by typing some special markup like you demonstrate.

spruce · 20 Dec 2001, 02:32 AM

The way I've been using personalities in Eudora, I would find it helpful to optionally tie what you use as the "secret word" into the new personality setup with some kind of template. So if I have one contact per personality, and each contact has their own secret word, when I'm adding a new address I just type in the new secret word and the new user's name and email, and the secret word gets added to the from address and the signature at the same time the folders with the user's name get created. You could very well have already been thinking this, but I just wanted to make sure the plus addressing detail was considered in your implementation. Thanks.

6 Dec 2001, 09:02 AM	#1
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Personalities OK, I'm just about to start work on 'Personalities'. These are going to replace the Signatures screen, and that yukky 'Send From Addresses' thing on the Preferences screen. Now I know a few people aren't going to be happy about this (they like having completely separate signatures and from addresses) but this has been a pretty heavily requested feature and makes a lot of sense so we're going with it. Sorry to those not happy, congrats to those who are... Anyway, each personality will have:[list=1][]Display name (name to display in the popup on the compose screen)[]Full Name (to attach to email, can leave blank if none)[]Email address (used as the From and Reply-To fields)[]Signature[]Optional list of extra email addresses to associate with this personality[]Default folder to store any sent item into (or defer/none)[/list=1] More info: For the optional extra email addresses, if you reply to a message sent to any of these addresses, it will default to using this personality on the compose screen On the compose screen, we'll add a pop up menu of Folders to store the sent item into. I think the logic of the default folder to choose will work like this: If replying to a message sent to an address identified with a personality, look at the 'store folder'. If specified, use that, if defer/none keep going If replying to a message not in the Inbox, set default folder to that folder Otherwise default to Sent Items The only extra thing I can think of that would be neat, when you select a 'Personality' from the pop up menu on the Compose screen, if it has a 'store sent item' folder associated with it, we use some JS to change the folder as well. Phew, hope that makes sense. Any comments, questions, suggestions? Rob

6 Dec 2001, 09:28 AM	#2
DippyTwitty Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 107	Perfect! I like where you're going with this - it may seem subtle, but I really appreciate the logic of putting replies in the same folder they came in (when not the inbox) so we can keep a sort of 'thread' together. I would like to use the rules to separate incoming emails by the address they came to. But if you get the personalities in there, I wonder if you could specify an 'Inbox' folder for that personality, which would really make more sense than specifying the criteria in two different places. Do you think that would be reasonable? The next-best thing to that would be a rule that specifically says "If recipient is personality 'X' then ...." Great work, don't stop! Dip

6 Dec 2001, 10:14 AM	#6
ikxu Guest Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 400	Huh? All this sound confusing to me as I am not a technical person. I just like an email service that is simple to use and everything is just there. I feel a bit confused right now ikxu

6 Dec 2001, 09:29 PM	#9
ikxu Guest Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 400	Thanks! Thank you Rob for explaining it in English Thank you Jeremy for the words of assurance I know that if I don't understand something I can always post my questions and concerns and get answers from you guys as well as from others. iku

9 Dec 2001, 04:58 AM	#13
OtaconTV Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 66	sig stuff Sort of unrelated but it has to do with signatures. Can you add a way to let us add images in signatures like in a forum? Not the actuall image though. Something like a tag like this: [image]http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/OtaconTV/Path.gif[image]

6 Dec 2001, 09:39 AM	#3
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Yes, I like the idea of a personality having both an "Inbox" and a "Sent Items". Then all of your mailing lists can be associated with an Inbox so you don't have to use the Define Rules screen for this. And, when you reply to a message in a personality's inbox, the Sent Item will get put in that personality's Sent Items folder. Unlike Dip, I don't want to have my sent messages in the same folder as received--this way however we're both happy, because Dip can set his inbox and Sent Items to the same folder for a personality.

6 Dec 2001, 09:53 AM	#4
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	I like it, should it automatically create a rule that ends up on the rules screen, or should it be a 'hidden' rule somehow? Could that be confusing? Rob

6 Dec 2001, 10:06 AM	#5
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	It doesn't get shown in the Define Rules screen. It does get added to the filter script, after all other rules. I don't think this need be confusing--each personality has an 'Inbox' that you can define; there's no particular reason why this has to use the same interface as 'Define Rules', IMHO.

6 Dec 2001, 10:22 AM	#7
robmueller Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 6,102 Representative of: Fastmail.FM	Basically what we're saying is that for a particular personality you can associate a separate 'inbox' and 'sent items' folder for that personality. Then any email that arrives for that personality (identified by email address) goes into 'their' inbox, and any email sent with that personality goes into 'their' sent items folder. In some respects it's like having separate email accounts, but without the hassle of having to login separately, separate preferences, separate rules, etc Hmmm, maybe we can associate aliases with personalities in some way as well... Rob

7 Dec 2001, 05:33 AM	#10
ustewjt Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Dayton, OH Posts: 9	Having separate Inboxes and Personalities for each of the different email accounts I manage would be wonderful! Looking forward to it!

7 Dec 2001, 05:25 PM	#12
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Yeah Lookout Excess isn't too strong in this area... And yep, this kinda family thing is planned. It'll be seen first for our co-brand/outsource clients, so that they can manage their domains and users. I've still got that PM you sent me a month or two back, Shelded, and that's certainly helped our thinking about how to set this up...

9 Dec 2001, 06:01 AM	#14
Jeremy Howard Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Australia Posts: 11,501	Yes definitely. We won't get on to this for a couple of months though--when we add HTML composition we'll let people insert pictures using either a graphical interface, or by typing some special markup like you demonstrate.

20 Dec 2001, 02:32 AM	#15
spruce Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Boston Posts: 38	plus addressing or "secret word"s The way I've been using personalities in Eudora, I would find it helpful to optionally tie what you use as the "secret word" into the new personality setup with some kind of template. So if I have one contact per personality, and each contact has their own secret word, when I'm adding a new address I just type in the new secret word and the new user's name and email, and the secret word gets added to the from address and the signature at the same time the folders with the user's name get created. You could very well have already been thinking this, but I just wanted to make sure the plus addressing detail was considered in your implementation. Thanks.