Ugh- why are people still using POP3???

[Ichinisan]

Since my internet connection is not always existent, I prefer being able to download emails to my PC to peruse (or ignore) later/

IMAP clients also cache messages locally for offline viewing.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The main reasons POP was popular was because ISP's were not equipped to store your email. We needed you to delete that shit.

Honestly now, I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone isn't using gmail, outlook.com, yahoo or some other 'infinite' mail provider with a better interface, better spam filtering, and full on active sync support.

Not everyone likes their email being stored on a server they can't control, that is also full of backdoors for the NSA.

 

[Ichinisan]

If you're going to try to explain the advanced search interface to someone, you may as well link to the actual FAQ. I can be staring at the email in outlook using any and every piece of metadata and the gmail search interface will not find the email. Search in gmail is absolutely horrible and I'm not even close to the only person who feels this way. There's a thread with over 10,000 replies on the google forums specifically about this issue. Gmail search is exact string match only, which is flipping ridiculous.

Not even close. It finds variations of words (like plural/singular, etc). It finds them in different sequences if I don't use quotes. Whenever I get more results than I wanted, I add a couple exclusion terms based on a couple examples of messages I didn't want to see and I very quickly find exactly what I was looking for.

I have problems using Outlook's slow search and have never had any problem finding something (instantly) in Gmail. At work, I'm on every possible group / notification and Gmail search + conversations + filters + labels is the only way to make it manageable.

Also, the keyboard shortcuts are GREAT since most of the common ones can be done with just my left hand, even while my right hand is on the mouse.

 

[pauldun170]

I use a mixture of pop3 and imap across the mutlple accounts and devices we have.
I have over 15 years worth of email stored locally, across several accounts, ISP's, providers etc.

My pop3 clients are setup to leave messages on servers except for my main PC (this way I avoid bumping into account space limitations of various providers)

Imap is great as well for organizing messages and having that everywhere all the time. However, I don't really care enough about either to complain about either implementation

 

[FelixDeCat]

I prefer IMAP.

 

[Printer Bandit]

 

[Jeff7]

If I use IMAP, does it always need to store the mail on the server? Or can it store it locally and then synchronize any changes when you open up the email program on a different system?
For the most part, I use my regular email at my home PC, and work email at my work PC. There's very little need for me to use them from anywhere else, and I don't plan to get a smartphone until they offer service for <$5/month, and come with at least a 24" screen and a full-size keyboard and mouse. :twisted:

IMAP and remote storage:
- I don't like relying on someone else keeping my data. It's not nearly as important to them as it is to me.
- I've seen someone browsing emails on an IMAP client. Each different message had a delay while it contacted the server to retrieve the message, as it seems that the only thing stored on the PC was some of the header information. It made the process of quickly flipping through emails quite sluggish, versus retrieving them from the PC's own SSD.
- If I feel like storing emails from a long time ago, attachments and all, I can do so locally quite easily, and not have someone from IT telling me that I need to clean out my Inbox on the server.

 

[Ichinisan]

Most clients let you flag specific folders to download and cache full messages, headers only, or don't sync/refresh at all until you select that folder.

I set these to "headers only:"

/[Gmail]/Trash
/[Gmail]/Spam
/[Gmail]/All Mail

I leave /Inbox set to download full message content (default).

 

[Ichinisan]

It's a lie. "Coke" refers only to "Coca Cola" in the south. The more general term here is "soda" or "drink." The more formal way (at restaurants) is "soft drink."

 

[Thebobo]

I am using Yahoo well ATT mail since I have a gazillion friends that have my email address for att.net. I actually pay ATT to use the email and I need to get off it but I have a lot of people and sites that are set up to use my current email that it would be a daunting task to switch. I have google accounts to but I wish you could get a permanent email address cheap and easily. One day it would be nice if you could keep the address and change the providers.

 

[Fritzo]

IMAP and remote storage:
- I don't like relying on someone else keeping my data. It's not nearly as important to them as it is to me.
- I've seen someone browsing emails on an IMAP client. Each different message had a delay while it contacted the server to retrieve the message, as it seems that the only thing stored on the PC was some of the header information. It made the process of quickly flipping through emails quite sluggish, versus retrieving them from the PC's own SSD.
- If I feel like storing emails from a long time ago, attachments and all, I can do so locally quite easily, and not have someone from IT telling me that I need to clean out my Inbox on the server.

-ISP's are going to be a LOT better at backing up data than you are.
-There's a delay you're on a slow connection. Otherwise it's fairly instantaneous.
-Mailboxes are several gigabytes in size these days (Google Apps for Business is 30GB now!). Cleaning your mailbox isn't that big of an issue anymore.

I am using Yahoo well ATT mail since I have a gazillion friends that have my email address for att.net. I actually pay ATT to use the email and I need to get off it but I have a lot of people and sites that are set up to use my current email that it would be a daunting task to switch. I have google accounts to but I wish you could get a permanent email address cheap and easily. One day it would be nice if you could keep the address and change the providers.

You can do that with the ISP I work for

 

[StinkyPinky]

That reminds me. I was supposed to change over my fathers email from pop to imap. He's still using pop. He wouldn't have the first clue how to change it.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Getting frustrated with people today Freakin' get with the 21st century and start using IMAP or Exchange or equivalent.

I'm mad bro.

I still use POP3 and Eudora daily
umadbro?

 

[Ichinisan]

I still use POP3 and Eudora daily
umadbro?

I am angry. Very mad, bro.

 

[Fritzo]

I still use POP3 and Eudora daily
umadbro?

Na. Enjoy your newspaper while watching a VHS tape on your console TV too.

 

[Jeff7]

-ISP's are going to be a LOT better at backing up data than you are.
-There's a delay you're on a slow connection. Otherwise it's fairly instantaneous.
-Mailboxes are several gigabytes in size these days (Google Apps for Business is 30GB now!). Cleaning your mailbox isn't that big of an issue anymore.



You can do that with the ISP I work for

This was at work.
Fiber connection and a gigabit LAN.

Backups: Ok, they probably do redundant this-and-that. Either way, I'm just one little revenue source that has little legal recourse if they accidentally lose any of my data.

 

[lxskllr]

Backups: Ok, they probably do redundant this-and-that. Either way, I'm just one little revenue source that has little legal recourse if they accidentally lose any of my data.

You can do secure, and reliable backups using 100% gratis services(if desired) anyway. It takes a small amount of effort, and gratis drive space is as common as road sand. Zip everything up, encrypt it, and load it on Dropbox, or anywhere else. They can't read it if it's encrypted, and your primary backup will be local.

 

[Ken g6]

Because I don't trust that any email provider will be around forever, so I archive all my email off-line.

 

[Engineer]

I don't know the difference and don't care. I use whatever my ISP gives me.

 

[Fritzo]

I don't know the difference and don't care. I use whatever my ISP gives me.

Some engineer you are.

 

[Engineer]

Some engineer you are.

Bah! I'm going to open up my mail client with all 12 POP accounts and hit refresh 3 times in your honor!

 

[rsbennett00]

Email just isn't that big a deal. Before email, did you record every phone call?

 

[Fayd]

Oh, you are 'that guy'

no. 'that guy' uses pine.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I have email.

 

[debian0001]

Want to see an email server crash?

Install exchange and add 10,000 users.

Why do providers user pop3? Because it works.

Hmm, I find this to be largely false. If the environment is scaled right and has redundancy this wouldn't happen. At least not under my watch. I run a 2,000 user Exchange 2010 environment and never had downtime.