Stupid Evolution Mail

[tatteredpotato]

So I'd heard that hotmail had added pop and smtp support, so I thought I'd give it a shot to see how it worked with evolution. Seemed to work great..... except for the fact I missed the fact that "Keep Messages On Server" was unchecked by default. So now 2600 messages (about 4 years worth) of email have been deleted off my hotmail account.

All is not lost, as I had hotmail forward to a gmail account of mine, so I still have an online "archive" per se, but this is still annoying nonetheless.

And yes, I do still use hotmail, it would be a pain to switch over, however the forwarding of my mail to gmail was supposed to be phase one, maybe I'll use this as an excuse to drop it.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't know of a single POP client that defaults to leave messages on server so what's the point of this post?

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I don't know of a single POP client that defaults to leave messages on server so what's the point of this post?

I guess I just don't understand the reasoning behind this idea. In an age where storage is cheap, why delete a few KB of messages? Personally I'd just used the webmail interface for all my email until I started using Windows Live Mail on Windows 7 to check my email. That program only deleted my stuff when I clicked delete. I guess I just assumed after that everything worked in a similar fashion.

So I guess what I'm asking is what is the point of deleting mail off the server???

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian


So I guess what I'm asking is what is the point of deleting mail off the server???

I kind of agree with you, but I prefer to download my messages. I do that on my main rig, and all the other computers I set it up to leave the messages on the server. I haven't had a mistake yet, but I could see that happening. I think it would be better to default to leaving the messages on the server. They can easily be deleted if you don't like that option, but they're hard to put back.

 

[Nothinman]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I don't know of a single POP client that defaults to leave messages on server so what's the point of this post?

I guess I just don't understand the reasoning behind this idea. In an age where storage is cheap, why delete a few KB of messages? Personally I'd just used the webmail interface for all my email until I started using Windows Live Mail on Windows 7 to check my email. That program only deleted my stuff when I clicked delete. I guess I just assumed after that everything worked in a similar fashion.

So I guess what I'm asking is what is the point of deleting mail off the server???

Because that's how POP was designed. If you want persistent mail storage on the server you should be using another protocol like IMAP or even MAPI.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Because that's how POP was designed. If you want persistent mail storage on the server you should be using another protocol like IMAP or even MAPI.

AFAIK hotmail only has POP (yes it sucks that's another discussion). I still think things like this are best left not default, or at least some warning about it. Sure POP was designed that way, but it is in now means crucial and I still don't see an advantage to deleting off the server.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Well, if you're already forwarding everything from hotmail to gmail, that's really the only phase you need right? Just inform people and start replying to everyone from your gmail account. You'll still receive all your hotmail email, assuming you don't disable the forward.

Then if you want to use client apps, you can use gmail's IMAP instead.

So...yeah, what else would be holding you up from changing over?

 

[Nothinman]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Because that's how POP was designed. If you want persistent mail storage on the server you should be using another protocol like IMAP or even MAPI.

AFAIK hotmail only has POP (yes it sucks that's another discussion). I still think things like this are best left not default, or at least some warning about it. Sure POP was designed that way, but it is in now means crucial and I still don't see an advantage to deleting off the server.

If you feel that strongly about it file a bug report and see what the devs say. Although I would be really surprised if you a response other than what I just said. POP wasn't designed for long-term storage or having a mailbox shared across multiple machines, things like IMAP and MAPI were created to address that. The fact that Hotmail only offers POP is just one more reason to ditch them.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Hmm alright, I suppose a more fitting title for this thread would be "stupid hotmail"

As for why I haven't switched to gmail yet I guess it's just a habbit for me to go to hotmail.