Open Bug 321655 Opened 19 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Junk/Not junk icon/indication

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

x86
All
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: Geert.Poels, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug, Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

Marking a message as junk is pretty visible.
A new message you specifically mark as 'not junk' doesn't get any marker on it.
Another right click 'mark as not junk' doesn't have a check flag or something.

There's something wrong with these flags :
* Messages flagged as junk still show the 'mark as junk' menu-item on a right-click.
* Messages from addresses from your 'white list' can still be flagged as 'not junk'.

Reproducible: Always
See bug 310635, bug 273223.  Junk status is actually tri-state: junk, not junk, undetermined.
QA Contact: front-end
Depends on: 310635
For a person there really are only two states and it's probably best to just indicate only those two differences. 

I would only use text to identify junk and a lack of that text otherwise as there is no obvious junk icon.  Just as a possible idea, we could even insert some text before the subject.  But it really needs some original thought.
(In reply to comment #2)
> 
> I would only use text to identify junk and a lack of that text otherwise as
> there is no obvious junk icon.
> 
Hmmm, the junk icon is learned pretty quickly. If you are proposing to eliminate it and change it with text, then I don't like that idea.

In my Junquilla extension, I have added a custom column which combines information from junkstatus and junkstatusorigin. I've attached a sample screenshot (the icons still need some work).  The uncertain state uses the existing black dot, ham is a green circle.

So the summation sign represents the statistical filter, check means set by user. Whitelist also has a different icon, though I have no examples of it here. So in the case that the reported presented, marking a whitelisted ham mail to user-trained ham would change the junk+ icon from green dot/person to green dot/checkmark.

I believe that user actions should have visible indications.

Aza has a great entry on the use of icons http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/the_end_of_an_icon/ I'd recommend reading.

(In reply to comment #3)
> Hmmm, the junk icon is learned pretty quickly. If you are proposing to
> eliminate it and change it with text, then I don't like that idea.

For buttons that change a message to junk or to not junk I don't intend to use icons to represent that action.  I don't think there is a identifiable icon for junk, just like there isn't one for archive.

> In my Junquilla extension, I have added a custom column which combines
> information from junkstatus and junkstatusorigin. I've attached a sample
> screenshot (the icons still need some work).  The uncertain state uses the
> existing black dot, ham is a green circle.
>
> So the summation sign represents the statistical filter, check means set by
> user. Whitelist also has a different icon, though I have no examples of it
> here. So in the case that the reported presented, marking a whitelisted ham
> mail to user-trained ham would change the junk+ icon from green dot/person to
> green dot/checkmark.

I think for your extension these kinds of icons make sense in that context and I wouldn't recommend using text for displaying that status.
 
> I believe that user actions should have visible indications.

Agreed, but visible indicators can be text or icons.
Assignee: mscott → nobody
I just checked using Shredder 3.1a1 (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091026 Shredder/3.1a1pre) and in a GMail SPAM folder with all items marked (manually, by me) as junk, context menu entries for both Mark as Junk and Mark as Not Junk appear for all messages in this folder.  Therefore, I vote that this (at least partially) this bug is still viable.
moving this into the ranks of ENH
Severity: normal → enhancement
OS: Windows XP → All
Blocks: junktracker
Severity: normal → S3
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