Open Bug 176238 Opened 22 years ago Updated 1 year ago

Make Mozilla not suck as a newsreader [meta]

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

defect
Not set
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: mrmazda, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 16 open bugs)

Details

(Keywords: meta, Whiteboard: See comments 14 & 27!)

Current bugzilla search for new, reopened, and assigned mailnews bugs totals
4,984. Here are several notable and/or egregious ones affecting newsreading:

Bug 21344 nor 4xp Location toolbar (menu of mail folders and newsgroups)
Bug 23633 nor Newsgroup names should only be truncated if there is no room for
the full name
Bug 35338 nor 4xp Overzealous blocking of cross-posting to multiple hosts
Bug 35689 nor 4xp Newsgroup postings don't linkify newsgroup header (like 4.x)
Bug 36538 nor 4xp 'mark newsgroup read' and 'message|mark|all read'
Bug 40260 nor 4xp Subscribe dialog should support "new" newsgroups
Bug 43278 nor 4xp Crossposts (same Message-ID) not marked as read in other groups
Bug 54911 maj 4xp News article gets sent to the right news group but on the
wrong server
Bug 60981 maj Multipart news messages: no combine and decode
Bug 62586 nor 4xp Need Titletips (or tooltips) for Cropped Text in Message
Header Pane
Bug 91662 nor Long strings in mail or news header cause scroll bars and
attachment window to disappear, making message unreadable
Bug 95623  nor Must differentiate between newsgroup-followup and email-reply
Bug 97186 enh Method of having alphabetical sort for newsgroups in the folder pane
Bug 109935 nor 4xp Mozilla message quoting should be more like Netscape 4.x
Bug 111665 nor 4xp Re-sorting messages should scroll to show selection
Bug 118899 nor 4xp Time Zone Never Displayed Within Message Headers
Bug 119964 enh Support new USENET encoding -- yEnc
Bug 129052 enh Incoming Mail Notification Should Be Like Netscape 3
Bug 129574 maj 4xp Autosubscribe/expired message links open in new window
Bug 131371 enh per-newsgroup signatures
Bug 135964 nor 4xp View -> Messages Change Deselects Displayed Message
Bug 137701 maj newsgroup postings stored as draft will send under wrong account
Bug 150274 nor 4xp User should be able to reorder the Newsgroups like in NS4
Bug 161968 nor Wrapping quoted lines get wrong quote status
Bug 161969 nor Deleting quoted text keeps quote status
Bug 164680 nor Cannot select messages or folders while creating filters
Bug 171442 nor 4xp Incomplete BCC list displayed using "all" for view - > headers
Bug 174017 nor Multiple enters after quoted text does not move cursor
no one needs this tracking bug -> mrmazda@ij.net
Assignee: chofmann → mrmazda
QA Contact: chofmann → mrmazda
bug 93426
some of these bugs are fixed.

I recommend listing them as bugs that depend on this one.
I don't think I understand. None of the listed bugs are currently fixed. Fixed
bugs show with strike-through here on the web page. Do you recommend that all
the originally listed bugs be added to bugs this bug depends on, like in bug 168066?
Adding dependencies as indicated by reporter.  Also bug 12699, which is one of 
the most important newsreader bugs, IMO.  If Mozilla can't meet these basic
requirements, it isn't suitable for reading usenet -- and that would be a great
shame.
There is a bug about supporting threaded *and* sorted views, but I couldn't find
it. :(
Peter,

That's 72493. Adding that one and 93426.
Depends on: 72493, 93426
Blocks: 169475
Blocks: 169476
No longer blocks: 169475
Bug 62586 was duped to bug 32157. Replacing in depends.
Depends on: titletips
No longer depends on: 62586
Depends on: 90584
Keywords: meta
Depends on: 153297
No longer depends on: 153297
Depends on: 186999
Bug 111665 was inexplicably duped to bug 186999. Replacing depends.
No longer depends on: 111665
Depends on: 167991
These might as well be subtrackers of this one:

Bug 71728 - [META] Message count problems tracker bug for News.
Bug 191298 - [META] Tracker for watch/ignore icon problems
Bug 192905 - [META] Tracker for Rewrap command issues
Depends on: 193974
Nominating Bug 168772: [rfe] Option to ignore specified users
Out of place.  That bug is about Bugzilla if you hadn't cared to notice.
Sorry, I haven't recognized that.

Well, Bug 10097 Ability to add user to 'killfile' with a single click
is about MailNews and I hope, that nothings wrong with that one, this time.
If you look at the original comment, you'll see "not suck" essentially means fix
the broken things and restore functionality lost in leaving Netscape 3 & 4
behind. This is not a general tracker for enhancement requests. Two EN in the
original list were wanted in N4 before its development ceased (97186 & 131371)
plus the two combine/decode bugs, also having roots before Mozilla 5 began in
ernest. Nice as ignore user and easy killfile would be, not having them doesn't
make Mozilla suck.
Bug 164680 was duped to bug 152140. Replacing in depends.
Depends on: 152140
No longer depends on: 164680
Please add bug 89939 as a major dependancy.

Mozilla doesn't even support news:<msg-id> URLs as required by
RFC 1738, see http://www.w3.org/Addressing/rfc1738.txt

It currently confuses the <msg-id> with the NNTP hostname to connect to.

4xp, used to work fine across all Netscape Navigator versions, ever.
Adding bug 9942 nor 4xp Message headers don't scroll with the message.
Depends on: 9942
Depends on: 27768
Should'nt it be set to mail-news?
vote for this bug!!
See comment 14. This bug is not for tracking general enhancement requests ->
removing 27768.

Added bugs need descriptions provided.

There is no tracking component for mailnews.
No longer depends on: 27768
Depends on: 83364
83364 removed. See comments 14 & 19.
No longer depends on: 83364
Adding bug 62033 nor 4xp Should display |References| links in message display window
Depends on: 62033
Depends on: 170292
Adding bug 36816 - news should use the server's username / password when
authenticating

Without this bug fixed, any time you read from a news sever that requires
passwords, the passwords are not remembered.  Pretty annoying for those using
Giganews and other subscription based news servers.
Depends on: 36816
Depends on: newssource
Please do as comment 14 and comment 19 specify when adding bugs. Broken view
source offline doesn't appear to qualify, since among other things that problem
has an obvious workaround.
No longer depends on: newssource
Looking back at your comment 14, the scope of your tracker isn't at all clear
from the summary/description.

BTW, did you mean

- fix the broken things and (restore functionality lost in leaving Netscape 3 &
4 behind)
or
- (fix the broken things and restore functionality) lost in leaving Netscape 3 &
4 behind
?

I think we should change the summary line so that it makes sense.  And should
this whole tracker have the 4xp keyword?
fix the (esp. notable and/or egregious) broken things, and restore functionality
lost in leaving Netscape 3 & 4 behind

This bug is not intended to track every bug found in newsreading.To me, "suck"
means serious (e.g. notable and/or egregious, as stated in comment 0, sentence
2) problems, such as functionality lost by "upgrading" from Netscape 3 or 4,
features asked for before N4 development ceased still not implemented (e.g. bug
60981), significant "enhancements" required to achieve basic parity with
competition (e.g. bug 119964) and non-tivial brokenness (e.g. bug 54911, bug
91662, bug 129574). 

That many depends here happen to be 4xp doesn't make this bug 4xp.

The summary means exactly what I intended. Netscape 4 remains my primary
newsreader because this stuff doesn't get fixed. News doesn't take a back seat
to the browser - it's hidden in the trunk. That sucks.
Depends on: 112422
Added bug:112422 (searching for messageid missing) and set it as a bug: 89939
blocker (see messageidfinder mozdev project)
No longer depends on: 112422
No one to add depends to this except assignee, QA or drivers. If you think a bug
should be added to depends list here, nominate it only. See comment 0, comment
14 & comment 25.
Whiteboard: See comment 27!
Depends on: 23114
No longer depends on: 35689
One question:
Shouldn't 'Product' be MailNews instead of Browser?
MailNews has no Tracking sub-component. 

Yes, I tried to change it ;-)
Depends on: 236409
No longer depends on: 236409
No longer depends on: 9942
Depends on: 9942
No longer depends on: 9942
Depends on: 9942
bug 91662 (removed) duped to bug 247833 (added)
Depends on: 247833
No longer depends on: 91662
No longer blocks: 169476
No longer depends on: 247833
Depends on: 247833
No longer depends on: 247833
Depends on: 247833
Felix, the competition includes 20 year old programs like trn, which 
had killfiles and thread pruning.  mozilla's newsreader sucks, in large
measure, because it STILL doesn't have those features.

I knew the manager of the mailnews team at Netscape (I was netscape employee 
1522).  He believed that Netscape's mail/news client should be targetted at 
corporate intranet use, and he didn't believe that killfiles and thread 
pruning made sense in a corporate intranet environment.  

But mozilla clients are not primarily about the corporate intranet 
enviroment, and are expected to compete with the products used by the 
masses on the open internet.  That includes essential features like one 
button plonk, and one button tree pruning, and killfile initiated tree 
pruning, like trn had in 1990 (or before).

If every other mailnews bug gets fixed, and mozilla/TB/SM still doesn't 
have usable thread management, then the news reader still sucks.  
No longer depends on: 129052
Depends on: 129052
Please consider adding bug 370889. This function is available in many newsreader including Outlook Express.
Depends on: 99019
More parity with competition bugs:
Bug 37775 – Subscribe to newsgroups dialog should support description
Bug 102804 – New newsgroups don't show up in subscription window
Bug 174234 – Implement full newsgroup name as tooltip on hover of group name 
Bug 344833 – Inform user whether a newsgroups is moderated or not when posting
Bug 370889 – Searching for both 2 or more keywords in Manage newsgroup subscription
More nominees:
Bug 10097 - Ability to add user to 'killfile' with a single click 
Bug 11054 - Ignore (kill) a Subthread (branch: not the whole thread) 
Bug 16913 - Filter news based on any headers 
I'd like to nominate
Bug 112422 – Searching for Message-IDs missing (news)

Yes, I've noticed comments 26 and 27.
Actually Message-IDs are used very often to cross reference between postings. At the moment you have to use google groups manually which is really annoying.

The feature was provided by the addon messageidfinder but this not longer works with trunk. See also Bug 62033 which was a blocker here and https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112422#c6
Whiteboard: See comment 27! → See comments 14 & 27!
Depends on: 426868
Depends on: 327885
No longer depends on: 426868
No longer depends on: 327885
(In reply to comment #35)
> I'd like to nominate
> Bug 112422 – Searching for Message-IDs missing (news)
> 
> Yes, I've noticed comments 26 and 27.

You can actually directly link them, like so: comment 26 & comment 27

> with trunk. See also Bug 62033 which was a blocker here and
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=112422#c6

Same here: bug 112422 comment 6

I have looked through here, and read comment 14 & comment 17, and I believe that I have a good 'parity with competition' bug (ref: comment 33).  It is bug 339983, support for .NZB files.  I know this kinda depends upon bug 119964 and bug 60981 being fixed, though.  This is my nomination.
Shouldn't this be Product: MailNews Core now?
meta/tracking does not work there
Depends on: 650620
Depends on: 344833
No longer depends on: 344833, 650620
Summary: Make Mozilla not suck as a newsreader → Make Mozilla not suck as a newsreader [meta]
I propose depends on bug #520784.
May depends on #617287
Component: Tracking → Folder and Message Lists
Product: Core → Thunderbird
Assignee: mrmazda → nobody
Component: Folder and Message Lists → General
I filed this on the suite, still use the suite, and hope to see this fixed in the suite. I've never used Thunderbird, and don't expect to.
Product: Thunderbird → SeaMonkey
Wait, why is this not set back to the "Core" product? It's relevant both to the suite and to Thunderbird in pretty much the same way, right? I mean, at least the dependent bugs are; the title can have different interpretations, but still.
May this bug can depend on bug #1456778
No longer depends on: 530193
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