Closed Bug 119684 Opened 23 years ago Closed 16 years ago

Remove the no subject warning

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement)

Product:
MailNews Core
Component:
Composition
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: jonasj, Unassigned)

References

Details

When I leave the subject field blank and click Send, I get a warning saying "You did not specify a subject for this message. If you would like to provide one, please type it now. There should be a way to disable the warning.
Severity: normal → enhancement
Summary: Give me a way to disable the no subject warning → [RFE]Give me a way to disable the no subject warning
reassign to varada. An hidden pref should do it...
Assignee: ducarroz → varada
AARGH!!! One more pref to check!!
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Why not just remove this warning all together? Is there really enough users who often forget to type a subject to warrant this dialog?
Making a pref for this would be absolutely ridicoulous. Either we show the warning or we don't. My vote goes to "don't". Updating summary.
Summary: [RFE]Give me a way to disable the no subject warning → [RFE] Remove the no subject warning
I find that waring helpful, it was a good idea to have in the first place. Plus, it forces newbies to provide a subject, they often don't realize how important the subject is when you have tens and hundreds of messages and twice as much spam.
QA Contact: sheelar → meehansqa
The warning really annoyed me in Netscape, and continues to annoy me in Mozilla. I send a lot of Majordomo commands via email and it is frustrating to be continuously reminded that I haven't specified a subject. My vote goes to remove it, or add a pref.
Please make this dialog go away. If I send mail with no subject, I did it on purpose.
I usually write the subject of my messages after writing the message, and sometimes I forget to fill in the subject after writing the message. I don't think removing this dialog would be a good idea. Some alternate solutions to the "this dialog annoys me" problem: 1. Get your majordomo admin to install the web interface. E-mail is not a good protocol/interface for commands like "lists" and "who", and it's not especially good for "subscribe". 2. Add a checkbox to the dialog: "[x] Display this dialog when I'm about to send a message with no subject". This might require adding a pref somewhere in the mail prefs dialog. 3. Instead of opening a dialog, put the text "(No subject)" in the subject field, select the subject field, maybe beep, and maybe put "Type a subject or press send again to send with no subject" in the status bar. I prefer #3.
Summary: [RFE] Remove the no subject warning → Remove the no subject warning
I am the majordomo admin, and I have majorcool installed. I still find it a lot easier sending commands via email, especially subscribe/unsubscribe commands. I would be happy though for a checkbox to make it go away next time
In Outlook Express, the warning is displayed with a checkbox saying "Don't show me this again." What would be the problem of adding the checkbox? After all, the warning can be useful sometimes, but if you often send messages without a subject, you can just check the checkbox and the warning will not appear. On another notice, the default text "(No Subject)" should be highlighted when displayed, so that you could easily enter the new subject without having to manually select the text first. But I assume that's another RFE?
David: Bug 142603.
*** Bug 165967 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
A default subject (e.g., "(No Subject)") is a very bad idea. The user should either have to type a subject or click the "send anyway" button (possibly turning on the checkbox first). The cases mentioned where a subjectless mail is valid (sending control mails that are parsed by programs) are the less common case; the more common case is that people just neglect to enter a subject, and should be warned. Furthermore, even in the uncommon case where a subject is not necessary, having one never harms anything. For these reasons, if there's a "don't show me this again" checkbox, it should be _unchecked_ by default. The user should have to actively do something to disable this (usually) important warning. IMO there should also be a way to get the warning back, by making a change in the preferences. Newbies are often initially annoyed about the need to enter a subject ("What's that for?") and might check the box, but later (after being advised by friends or relatives with more experience about the importance of a relevant subject line) may wish to get the warning back.
Upon further reflection, it really might be better if the user has to delve into the prefs dialogs to disable this one. I'm normally a big fan of "don't warn me again" checkboxes, but this warning is one that newbies shouldn't be disabling if they don't know what they're doing. People who send majordomo control messages know how to operate a prefs dialog.
*** Bug 177729 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
taking all of varada's bugs.
Assignee: varada → sspitzer
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
One more vote for this bug. I think that it makes good sense for users to be warned when there's no subject (with a checkbox as to whether to ask again in the future). However, I think it's at best a stupid bug and at worst deceptive and destructive to put "(no subject)" as though the user got to put no subject as they wished when in fact there is a useless default subject. There are many good reasons why normal users want an empty subject: 1) Text messages to cell phones or other restricted-space environments often benefits from an empty subject. 2) Automated mail processing systems (e.g., development systems, majordomo, etc.) often don't need a subject, or may even be disrupted by a random default subject. Putting "(no subject)" is misleading, disruptive, and doesn't make a breach of etiquette any better! Somebody please remove it!
*** Bug 113299 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
What do you people have against having this as a pref? Here's what I'd do: - Keep the warning on by default - Have a pref to stop it in mail, as well as a "don't warn me again" checkbox in the prompt dialog if in mail (as opposed to news) - Possibly get rid of the default "(no subject)", leaving it blank instead - Respect GNKSA requirement for news (bug 169614). There's no excuse for a blank subject line in a news post anyway.
I agree that having the warning as a pref is a good idea. Asking the first time with a "don't warn me" checkbox sounds perfect to me. The warning might even include something like "a meaningful email subject is both helpful and good etiquette." However, the current "(no subject)" default absolutely has to go. When the user sees that it seems as though it would stay blank. It seems to be deliberately misleading to the user! I suggest very strongly that the default in the warning dialog be blank--just as the user specified in the first place. I do professional design and believe this is the only reasonable default for such a warning dialog. I also agree that USENET is an entirely different case. But please let emailers use their email in the ways they want: it's a private communications medium. As I and others have stated before, some automated systems *require* blank subjects.
Product: MailNews → Core
*** Bug 260991 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm not working on this bug, so re-assing to the default owner.
Assignee: sspitzer → nobody
QA Contact: meehansqa
It is irritating to receive mails with no subject. Now yahoo and gmail provide this warning. Not providing warning is not good idea. Created bug 367698 to avoid pre-populating "(no subject)"
Made comments in bug 367698 about adding a checkbox to the empty subject warning dialog. here are the relevant parts inline -- It might make sense to also offer to not warn about this again as bug 119684 seems to cover. +-------------------------------------------------+ | Send this message without a subject? | | | | [x] Always warn about empty subjects | | | | [ Send without Subject ] [ Cancel Sending ] | +-------------------------------------------------+ This addition of "[x] Always warn..." comes with a cost of adding a preference to the composition tab such that people can undo the pref change and get warnings back. I'm not really excited about a preference like that, which makes me slightly hesitant to ask for this.
QA Contact: composition
Product: Core → MailNews Core
This has been fixed by the latest patch to bug 367698. The new dialog doesn't force the entry of a subject and so is much less annoying than the current dialog. Because this new dialog is so sweet (compared to the old system) we don't need an option to stop it from appearing. WONTFIXing this, please try out the new system when it lands.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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