There's a Better Way To Do Email

webecedarian · 26 Apr 2024, 11:20 AM

Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.
There's a Better Way To Do Email
By Ezra Klein

There is no end of theories for why the internet feels so crummy these days. The New Yorker blames the shift to algorithmic feeds. Wired blames a cycle in which companies cease serving their users and begin monetizing them. The M.I.T. Technology Review blames ad-based business models. The Verge blames search engines. I agree with all these arguments. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another.

A shame closet is that spot in your home where you cram the stuff that has nowhere else to go. It doesn’t have to be a closet. It can be a garage or a room or a chest of drawers or all of them at once. Whatever the space, it is defined by the absence of choices about what goes into it. There are things you need in there. There are things you will never need in there. But as the shame closet grows, the task of excavation or organization becomes too daunting to contemplate.

The shame closet era of the internet had a beginning. It was 20 years ago that Google unveiled Gmail. If you were not an internet user back then, it is hard to describe the astonishment that greeted Google’s announcement. Inboxes routinely topped out at 15 megabytes. Google was offering a free gigabyte, dozens and dozens of times more. Everyone wanted in. But you had to be invited. I remember jockeying for one of those early invites. I remember the thrill of finding one. I felt lucky. I felt chosen.

A few months ago, I euthanized that Gmail account. I have more than a million unread messages in my inbox...

A few months ago, I vowed to take back control of my digital life. I began with my email. I subscribed to Hey, an email service that takes a very different view of how email should work. Gmail and virtually all of its competitors assume anyone should be able to email you and then you should store and sort and search and categorize those messages. Hey assumes that only the people you want email from should be able to email you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/o...tal-shame.html

hadaso · 26 Apr 2024, 07:16 PM

What he describes is switching from a service that's based on some assumption that doesn't work as perfectly as was promised 20 years ago to a service that's based on a false assumption that people can decide, based on the first message received, that they;ll never need to receive another message from the same sender, or that on day 1 one can decide on future relationships.

chrisretusn · 26 Apr 2024, 07:40 PM

Interesting. Hey has been discussed on the forum before. I remember when I got my first Gmail account. I thought the ridiculous amount of space was simply mind boggling. I would never need that amount of space (POP3 user speaking). I still use my Gmail account, I still don't need all that space. A get a handful of messages a day in Gmail. I nothing stored, I don't use the calendar or any other feature. Most of my emails come from other providers.

Hey sounds interesting I still hold the same opinion of Hey as I did a few years ago. Not for me. I watched the short intro video on the Hey web site, has a lot of nice features. I can accomplish most the email features using filters in my email client. I prefer an email client, Hey is web based. I suppose if I got a lot of emails and used web based email, I might give it a go.

If anyone wants to read the NYT article not behind a paywall you can read it here.
https://archive.md/2sy1t

TenFour · 26 Apr 2024, 08:34 PM

I suspect Ezra Klein gets tons of email compared to most of us. For my own part I hate automatic filtering of any sort, even if I set it up, because inevitably every single day something gets miscategorized. It takes longer searching through various tabs and folders than it does just to scan my email Inbox using my own brain to read, trash, star, or archive messages. I do this at random moments throughout the day and I find it just fills up otherwise wasted time nicely. The result is often Inbox Zero for me. OTOH, when I worked for an email marketing company I used to get 600 messages a day some days, meaning it was nearly a fulltime job just taking care of my email. Klein probably gets loads of messages like that.

**CyberSmurf** · 26 Apr 2024, 10:52 PM

I miss a lot of the features of the Eudora email client.
One of the features was that you could filter your email using lists in your address book.

I really liked being able to filter based on hidden headers.

One of the things that I don't like about GMail filters is that you cannot order your filters and add a stop processing. All filters are processed which means a lot of filters have to be duplicated with a long list of inclusions and exceptions.

26 Apr 2024, 11:20 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 483	There's a Better Way To Do Email Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You. There's a Better Way To Do Email By Ezra Klein There is no end of theories for why the internet feels so crummy these days. The New Yorker blames the shift to algorithmic feeds. Wired blames a cycle in which companies cease serving their users and begin monetizing them. The M.I.T. Technology Review blames ad-based business models. The Verge blames search engines. I agree with all these arguments. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another. A shame closet is that spot in your home where you cram the stuff that has nowhere else to go. It doesn’t have to be a closet. It can be a garage or a room or a chest of drawers or all of them at once. Whatever the space, it is defined by the absence of choices about what goes into it. There are things you need in there. There are things you will never need in there. But as the shame closet grows, the task of excavation or organization becomes too daunting to contemplate. The shame closet era of the internet had a beginning. It was 20 years ago that Google unveiled Gmail. If you were not an internet user back then, it is hard to describe the astonishment that greeted Google’s announcement. Inboxes routinely topped out at 15 megabytes. Google was offering a free gigabyte, dozens and dozens of times more. Everyone wanted in. But you had to be invited. I remember jockeying for one of those early invites. I remember the thrill of finding one. I felt lucky. I felt chosen. A few months ago, I euthanized that Gmail account. I have more than a million unread messages in my inbox... A few months ago, I vowed to take back control of my digital life. I began with my email. I subscribed to Hey, an email service that takes a very different view of how email should work. Gmail and virtually all of its competitors assume anyone should be able to email you and then you should store and sort and search and categorize those messages. Hey assumes that only the people you want email from should be able to email you. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/o...tal-shame.html

26 Apr 2024, 07:16 PM	#2
hadaso The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Holon, Israel. Posts: 4,856	What he describes is switching from a service that's based on some assumption that doesn't work as perfectly as was promised 20 years ago to a service that's based on a false assumption that people can decide, based on the first message received, that they;ll never need to receive another message from the same sender, or that on day 1 one can decide on future relationships.

26 Apr 2024, 07:40 PM	#3
chrisretusn Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Philippines Posts: 846	Interesting. Hey has been discussed on the forum before. I remember when I got my first Gmail account. I thought the ridiculous amount of space was simply mind boggling. I would never need that amount of space (POP3 user speaking). I still use my Gmail account, I still don't need all that space. A get a handful of messages a day in Gmail. I nothing stored, I don't use the calendar or any other feature. Most of my emails come from other providers. Hey sounds interesting I still hold the same opinion of Hey as I did a few years ago. Not for me. I watched the short intro video on the Hey web site, has a lot of nice features. I can accomplish most the email features using filters in my email client. I prefer an email client, Hey is web based. I suppose if I got a lot of emails and used web based email, I might give it a go. If anyone wants to read the NYT article not behind a paywall you can read it here. https://archive.md/2sy1t

26 Apr 2024, 08:34 PM	#4
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,746	I suspect Ezra Klein gets tons of email compared to most of us. For my own part I hate automatic filtering of any sort, even if I set it up, because inevitably every single day something gets miscategorized. It takes longer searching through various tabs and folders than it does just to scan my email Inbox using my own brain to read, trash, star, or archive messages. I do this at random moments throughout the day and I find it just fills up otherwise wasted time nicely. The result is often Inbox Zero for me. OTOH, when I worked for an email marketing company I used to get 600 messages a day some days, meaning it was nearly a fulltime job just taking care of my email. Klein probably gets loads of messages like that.

26 Apr 2024, 10:52 PM	#5
CyberSmurf Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: British Columbia Posts: 4,011	I miss a lot of the features of the Eudora email client. One of the features was that you could filter your email using lists in your address book. I really liked being able to filter based on hidden headers. One of the things that I don't like about GMail filters is that you cannot order your filters and add a stop processing. All filters are processed which means a lot of filters have to be duplicated with a long list of inclusions and exceptions.