Email

[leetmasterjames.livejournal.com]

I hate email. Well, let me be more specific. It isn't the concept or the implementation of email that I hate. Its the fact that everyone uses email every day for everything from mission critical dealings to mundane tasks and despite the fact that email programs use fairly common terms for operations such as "Send Mail" or "Inbox" it seems that most people have trouble grasping these concepts. Its not like they are forced to recite thier pop/smtp settings at 3AM. Its not like the button to send mail says something like "Prepare Export of Materials" or moves around the screen every time you try to click it. In general email programs are made to be easy to use but despite this every single day at least one person has trouble with a task that is so simple it boggles the mind. Problems like;

"Where are my new emails?". I dunno youve been using email for how many years? Where has it been all these years, id wager the Inbox where it has always been and always will be for every mail client in existance.

"How do I check my messages?". Hmm a toughy, I suspect that if you press that big button that says "Send and Receive" it'll take care of everything. Failing that close and open you email program.

"Whats my email password?". Do I look like your email provider?

"What does it mean that it isnt showing pictures that may contain malicious or unwanted content?. ENGLISH DO YOU SPEAK IT!?

Now this next part may inflame some. Outlook. I hate that client so much. I know its got a scheduler, and can sync with any number of external devices and can handle exchange servers. Thats all nice, it really is. The problem is that 3/4 of my clients use it but dont use the sync capabilities, don't have and exchange server and don't know it has a scheduler. They also use versions that are old so at least every other week I have to repair a PST file that has gone over 2GB in size and then listen to the whining when they lost a few messages in the process. Its a known issue, but for some stupid reason Outlook doesn't warn you about your approaching doom at oh I dunno 1.8GB in file size. It can also be a major pain to import their data some days especially if they have 3 pst files and three email accounts but neglect to specify this. Now, Outlook Express is always a pain with its separate addresses\mail\account info but I digress.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I agree the 2GB limit (1.8GB actually) is a pain. After the first time I explain AutoArchive and the fact it can delete mail you don't want any more and some how this is WORSE for them....

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

outlook is such a bloated piece of shit.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

also, dear god people who want to sync need to use a REAL client, not one that jacks up file size for no clear reason. i hate dealing with that shit, outlook takes longer to sync because it's inflating everything. wtf.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

in other words, that nasty little pst file would be half the size if you would just use ical or something.

[jecook]

It'd probably also be better if people NOT use their email client as a filing system- SRSLY.

[reanimated.livejournal.com]

lol and then we could start talking about TRASH being used as a 'storage disk'...

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Please, God, don't remind me. :&

"So you left your OMG-mission-critical-VALUABLE emails in the Trash folder?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"To make sure they wouldn't get lost or deleted."

"Do me a favor and read me the name of that folder again."

"Trash."

"What does that suggest to you?"

"I dunno.."

::headdesk::

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

The thing I love most about pst files are the users who call and say, "But I took half the mail out of it, why won't it open??*" and I reply with, "Like I told you before, the file size will never go down on that file no matter what you do to it. Make a new one (or five) and only keep what you actually need in there."

Well, I suppose you could compress the file, but why bother? Nuke it from orbit, save yourself some time.

*: You had a 3 gig PST file. What the fuck did you think was going to happen?

[mariasama16.livejournal.com]

Outlook is infinitely better than Lotus Notes. At least in a corporate environment. Otherwise, for home use? iCal/Thunderbird/Webmail :P

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

My favorite: At a client, we implemented an automatic trash deletion policy. It cleared the Trash folder weekly. We gave them a month's notice and several interim warnings. As soon as it was in place, I had to go do a mailbox restore from backup because someone ignored all of the warnings. It was being used to store about 1100 messages, mostly government compliance communication. :/

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention: We implemented the policy because we were wasting countless hours fixing PST errors, usually due to people somehow failing to empty their trash despite being reminded about it every time they close outlook...

[seaofdestiny.livejournal.com]

So that user received a Stern Talking-To for incompetence at his job and failure to follow instructions?

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

50%. They got the incompetence at following instructions talk instead.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

The combination of people who only have the vaguest hint of what a computer is, let alone how email works, and the hateful tangle of evil and bile known as Outlook, is really the definition of "perfect storm" in my mind.

That being said, email clients are probably themselves the best example I can think of of the principle that whenever you idiot-proof something, nature simply builds a better idiot ..

[red-scully.livejournal.com]

Outlook I generally have no problem with, but PST files on the other hand... well, let's just say whoever invented them is in need of an almighty kicking. There are no words for the amount of time I waste helping users set up their archives, sort out their archives, find their archives and just work out which archive is which. GAH. Plus, half of them don't understand wtf an archive IS, so when they have a problem with it they don't even know how to articulate this.

Man, I was so much happier when I worked in a department that had outlawed PSTs altogether and given every user a 1gb mailbox... *grumbles*

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

Had a client where their outlook had sporked due to it probably having more then 2gb locally.Not really my problem though.

Ontop of that my client had "Leave message on server" and our ancient mailserver did not have the quota on it.

7.7 GB worth of mails. yeah, good luck with that over your 2mb corporate line.

Tried valiantly to break it down , but even just last month would be 1.5 GB of mails. Brilliant user, very good.

Sigh.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Our email sitrep was so bad, a SYMANTEC product (Enterprise Vault) actually IMPROVED things.

[cthulu-for-pm.livejournal.com]

Our email sitrep was so bad, a SYMANTEC product (Enterprise Vault) actually IMPROVED things.

Isn't that one of the first signs of the apocalypse?

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know - hairs have been up on the back of my head since the install...