[Evolution] Shred Feature

[Krishna Myneni <krishnamyneni bellsouth net>]

Since I provide computer assistance for my father, I get feedback on
ways of using Evolution different from the way in which I normally use
it. Yesterday, he asked me why he could not "delete" (expunge appears to
be the term used here) an individual message in his Trash folder.

At first, I tried to explain the Trash can analogy, and that such an
operation would not be logically consistent with the way a trash can is
used, i.e. one does not retrieve an individual item from the trash bin
and toss it into the pickup truck, assuming it comes along whenever
necessary. However, after some reflection, this analogy does not offer a
very satisfying answer. Reviewing the messages on this mailing list,
back to Jan. 2008, there are several references from frustrated users
about the lack of such a capability.

It appears to me that the problem is not with the Trash can analogy, but
with lack of a feature that we have access to in the real world. With
real mail trash, we can run it through a shredder and toss the result
into the trash can. This prevents anyone from reading the mail, even if
it's in the trash bin. Then, it's perfectly logical to empty the trash
bin contents all at once. Therefore, I would like to suggest a "Shred
Message" feature, available from any folder. The Shred function could
scramble the order of the data in the message, using a random number
generator, and place the result in the trash bin. The data from any
shredded message could go into a special shredded data message, which
displays the cumulative number of bytes in the message, which allows for
some form of feedback to the user, akin to looking into the trash bin
and seeing a growing pile of shreddings. I believe this could be a very
useful feature to add to Evolution.

Krishna Myneni