1491669 - messages are not sent with timestamp of sending-time, but last-edit-time

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1423462

(Thunderbird :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[chrizilla]

steps to reproduce:
===================
1. compose new eMail message
2. place it in your Outbox (either by "send later" or go offline and "send now")
3. wait 3 days
4. "send unsent messages"

expected results:
=================
eMails are sent with current timestamp (time of sending, not time of last editing). This is more logical, since the recipient primarily wants to know, when the mail was sent (not when it was last edited).

actual results:
===============
eMails are sent with old timestamp (3 days ago).


comment:
========
This is a problem, because when the eMail is received, people miss it, since it is hidden between old mails, which the recipient has already read a few days ago (somewhere on page 4 or more in paginated inboxes or a few pages above in scrollable ones). I always get the same reaction when I follow-up with a telephone call: "Ah yes, it's there. It's way up there. Must have missed it."

One of the advantages of an eMail client over webmail is the possibility to respond to eMails when offline. But if using this feature means no one reads your mails, than that defeats its purpose. 

Say I leave town on a Friday afternoon to spend the week-end somewhere without internet connection and on Friday evening I respond to my office mails (preferring a quiet place in nature to my office walls). On Monday, back in my office, I send the unsent messages, but nobody reads them as they will be buried among the eMails received on Friday before.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

This is an example of bug 1423462

Comment 2

[chrizilla]

This is not the same bug.
Bug 1423462 concerns the display of the date column in your local mail folders, which impacts the sender only.
Bug 1491669 is about timestamping emails while sending and the impact on ALL recipients.

Bug 1423462 was closed without reason and only with the limited impact of a display issue in mind.
If we close Bug 1491669 as a duplicate, its much greater impact won't even be considered!

Can we reopen this bug?

If we leave this unfixed, essentially Thunderbird users can neither compose&send messages when offline nor use file > send later when online. This severely cripples Thunderbird's offline capability.