455681 - need to manage server space usage after creating a new POP3 account

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

As mentioned in bug 231541 comment 91 the default account settings for account creation in bug 422814 will be to leave messages on the server.  This is to prevent data loss for new users and people who just want to try out Thunderbird.  It's imperative that people be able to try using Thunderbird without the application making irreparable changes to there mail.

However there is a problem that POP users need to manage the number of emails on their server, a reason that bug 231541 has languished for so long.  But when an account is first created and emails are downloaded we do not need to remove the emails from the server at this point.  Thunderbird could just be an alternate view on reading mail through POP and thus we can't assume that it's time to clean house.  Once a person has created an account with Thunderbird and begins to receive new POP mail _after_ getting their initial mail we need to start managing their POP server for them.

POP servers don't tell people how much space is left so it seems likely Thunderbird will just have to ask the user if they want to continue leaving their messages on the server or if they want to delete messages after receiving them.

Comment 1

[David :Bienvenu]

We will now also age away by default messages we downloaded more than 7 days ago. And we delete messages left on server when the user deletes the messages. So the problem is mostly for people who turn off both those features.

Comment 2

[jwq]

 In Bug 312431 I suggested that a simple text reminder in the account creation dialog would be sufficient to address the concerns about deletion of messages from the server aired in Bug 112356 and Bug 231541. That would seem to be a significantly less time-consuming and bug-prone solution compared to this one.

 Are the costs of coding this outweighed by the benefits? I expect that the perception of "benefit" will largely be a matter of opinion, but the cost will be code bloat and dev time.

 Feel free to weight my opinion by the fact that I won't be doing the coding, but I don't believe that this will yield any improvement over a simpler (non-programmatic) solution.

Comment 3

[Bryan Clark (DevTools PM) [:clarkbw]]

>  Are the costs of coding this outweighed by the benefits? I expect that the
> perception of "benefit" will largely be a matter of opinion, but the cost will
> be code bloat and dev time.

I see a great user benefit in this change.  We're able to setup an account for new users with a minimal number of questions required (best case: name, email, password).  We're no longer being destructive and yet still allowing for flexibility.  If we're not writing code for the users benefit, who are we writing it for?

Comment 4

[Tuukka Tolvanen (sp3000)]

Beyond comment 1, I guess the rest is "Don't delete mail off POP server without explicit user confirmation"? I guess that boils down to one of those confirmation dialogs with a "do this without asking from now on" checkbox, whenever POP delete-on-server fires, which would be, on the 7th day since first use, with that default. Something like

<?> In order to not run out of space on your POP account, Thunderbird can
    automatically remove the copies of the messages remaining on the server
    some time after downloading them. Would you like to clean up messages on
    the server now?
      [x] Do this without asking from now on
    (Change Settings...)     (No) (Yes)

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Sounds like a good plan, though I think 7 days is on the shorter side. People aren't likely to run out of space in that short time. 

I don't think it's all about the first-run either, so for instance you might be away for a couple of weeks, and then you'd get sync problems. (I don't think more then a one time warning is needed.) How about 21? Or at least 14?

Comment 6

[David :Bienvenu]

I believe we start counting from when we download the message. So the vacation scenario shouldn't be a problem.

Comment 7

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

It doesn't?
Read mail on computerA before vacation, go off for a week, come back, read mail on computerA. Next day, go online from computerB => there's a hole of one day+ in the mails on computerB.