[Fwd: Re: [Evolution] read receipt function in evo]

["James D. Ivey" <james iveylaw com>]

On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 07:16, Jeffrey Stedfast wrote: 
> On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 04:16 -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 15:46 +0800, Not Zed wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Do you know if there is a special reason why it's not supported by evo yet?
> > > > I mean, a lot of 'big' mail clients support this, like Mozilla-mail,
> > > > thunderbird, kmail, a certain out-of-the-windows-look client ;)
> > > Probably none of us see it as very important.  Its an intrusion on
> > > personal privacy, and if you can turn it off, which you would have to
> > > be able to for the reason just mentioned, then it can never actually
> > > guarantee anything anyway.
> > > 
> > > Its like ringing someones phone to see if they're home.  If they
> > > answer you know they are, but if they don't, it doesn't mean they
> > > aren't.
> > 
> > True.  However, at work, where I must use Lookout, it's useful
> > with co-workers who forget to reply to emails.  "Hey, you read my
> > urgent email a week ago.  Why haven't you replied?"
> > 
>
> yea, but you can do this anyway.

Yea, and we can also do without e-mail altogether and just use the telephone.  That's not a legitimate answer to the posted question.

And, there's a very real and legitimate reason to ask for a return receipt.  It's not an invasion of privacy.

Years ago, as a software engineer contractor, I was stiffed by my client.  I had to resort to small claims court to collect.  For all the contractors out there who could find themselves in a similar situation, how do you send "registered" e-mail that has some evidence that it was viewed?

Just generally, in business, requests get passed around with multiple "hops" before they are satisfied.  It would be really useful to be able to track down breaks in communication to prevent business failures.  For business, this is an important feature.  And, I've posted a request for this feature back with evo 0.8.  Yes, the recipient can refuse the return receipt, but it's still a very useful feature.

Unless Ximian implements some features that aren't important to Ximian but are important to its users, evo will be relegated to "toy" status.  I'm currently struggling to remain with my current distro of SuSE+Ximian in my business, but the lack of meaningful support in both components is forcing my hand to look around for another solution.

So the question to Ximian at this point becomes, do you want to be a toy, or do you want a meaningful presence in industry?  I'm a big fan of Ximian and have been for years.  But I'd really like to see it mature into a business-ready platform.  Responses like the one above indicates that Ximian just isn't quite ready for the office yet.  Pitty.

Regards,

Jim

-- 

James D. Ivey <james iveylaw com>

Law Offices of James D. Ivey

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Oakland, California 94611-1742

+1.510.336.1100

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