Re: [Evolution] IMAP and Expunge

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

On Sat, 2008-10-18 at 11:08 -0700, Niessner, Albert F wrote:
> * read with a little tongue in cheek *
>
> Because real trash stinks and is not easily searchable while email has
> no odor and is incredibly easy to search (in Evo anyway). Sure, I
> could create a host of folders and sort my email and file it in a
> wonderful organization that I will never remember, but why waste the
> time? I could even create a folder and move every email into it, but
> why when Evo already create one for me called Trash? Evo even makes it
> single key strokes or a push of a button to file my email in that
> single special folder called Trash. I can search it, sort it, filter
> it, pull stuff back out of it, and a host of other useful tasks with
> it. Best of all, I can ignore it until I do not need look at it. So,
> why should I care that it is called Trash instead of ToLazyToSort?
>
> I understand why you are asking, but I think the analogy of my back
> yard and real trash is a bit of a reash. In a lot of ways, my Trash
> folder in Evo is just a microcosim for Evo to pretend it is google
> with. When I use google, the item I am searching for has value only
> for the moment I am searching for it. I had no value yesterday and
> probably will not tomorrow. We do not ask people to delete their
> websites and pages because they are not valuable to us now. Instead we
> ask google to separate the immediately useful from the everyday
> trivia. Email is the same way. What I receive today may not be of
> value at that moment or may have value again in the future. My Trash
> folder thus becomes the glod of information and Evo my search engine.

I *am* sympathetic to that way of thinking, but as a mail admin I
dislike people using "trash" for such things - trash is trash and when
I'm trying to sort out someones mail box the first thing I do is to
remove all the deleted messages - that is often about 80% of a mailbox.

There's also in people's mind two types of "trash" - things they want
out of their mailbox because they have finished dealing with it and
things they really don't want (like little blue pill adverts).  But
there is only one "trash" folder - so they keep all the smelly trash
along with all the unloved bits of glod because there's no easy way of
separating them.

*My* way of dealing with things is as follows:  *all* mail is filtered
by the MTA on receipt, before anything else, into a dated archive folder
- I can thus retrieve any piece of mail I have ever received (including
spam!). Non-important incoming mail is then filtered by the MTA into
specific folders, the rest is delivered into my Inbox.  Evo does some
more filtering and I'm left with about 20 or so messages in my Inbox per
day (out of 200-300 received).  I *delete* (and expunge) those I really
don't want, all other messages are left, unmolested, in my inbox.
Periodically I move/rename my Inbox and start again. 

Hence, all the messages I have can be searched by Evo or Beagle - and I
use the "trash" for what it's meant to be used for.

I know people work differently, but this setup works for me.

What it actually sounds that you want is to create arbitrary key
bindings - so that pressing, say, "Insert", instead of "Delete", moves
mail to another folder, while "Delete" actually marks a message for
deletion.

P.