On 2013-04-10, James Griffin <j...@kontrol.kode5.net> wrote:
> Well, yes I do have an archiving system but really i'm only interested
> in keeping my University mail and a few interesting mails from mailing
> lists that I know i will want to refer back to but I ensure the mail I
> want to keep is flagged and archived monthly (usually) and so keeps my
> current mailbox usage free from large amounts of it.
I'm not sure what you mean by "current mailbox usage", but we're not
talking about keeping thousands of e-mails in an inbox. Google's All
Mail "folder" is an archive, not a mailbox that you actually use
regularly.
> I recall someone mentioned they have the best part of 200,000 emails.
> For me, I can't imagine why I would want to keep a large number like
> that.
>
> I am sure people have perfectly valid reasons for keeping such large
> amount, it was just out of curiosity.
Because it's less work to "keep" them. On most all Gmail clients the
"delete" operation just removes a message from the current folder
(e.g. the inbox). It's still in the All Mail folder. Remember: with
Gmail's IMAP server, a message can exist in multiple folders
simultaneously. The iOS mail client doesn't even _have_ a delete
button when used with Gmail accounts -- all it has is an "Archive"
button.
Permanently deleting something so it doesn't show up in "All Mail"
requires several extra steps, and there's just no point in going to
the extra effort.
I mainly use mutt. When using mutt hitting 'd' in my Gmail "inbox"
and then quitting or hitting '$' removes the message from the inbox.
It still shows up in the 'All Mail' folder. It takes several extra
steps to delete it from 'All Mail'. Why should I do that extra work?
What do I gain? Having that message sitting in All Mail doesn't cost
me anything, and there have been several times when I deleted something
and later needed it. Fortunately, it was still there in the All Mail
archive.
--
Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! LBJ, LBJ, how many
at JOKES did you tell today??!
gmail.com
