65403 - ability to have multiple email addresses without the need of seperate accounts

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 44863

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Account Configuration, enhancement)

Description

[Jacob Eisinger]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win95; en-US; m18) Gecko/20010112
BuildID:    2001011204

I would like the ability to add multiple e-mail addresses from which an e-mail
can be addressed.

For example, I currently only check my e-mail on one account, acct1.  But, I
also have four other accounts from which I can currently forward my e-mail,
acct2-5, to acct1.  Sometimes it is necessary to reply to one of these forwarded
messages from that e-mail address.

Currently the only way to achieve these "from" e-mail addresses is to create
seperate accounts each with a pop server and other information.  By creating
these accounts the mail window is cluttered by adding a folder to the mail view.
 I propose to be able to just have a list of e-mail address that an e-mail can
be addressed from with the corresponding names to go with the e-mail addresses 
(<name> email_address).

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 18882.  (Bug 18882 might depend on this bug.)

Comment 2

[Jacob Eisinger]

Please note this bug may be a duplicate of bug 17319.

But, bug 17319 was marked as fixed for one reason or another...  Because of the
other bug being considered closed, I don't know whether I should write on this
bug or to the other - guidance would be appreciated.

I think that it would definately be in poor taste to be able to just edit the
from field because this ease of access would  let me people type in bad
information (just their name, a bad e-mail address, etc.) or let people type in
someone elses e-mail address as a joke.  So, I think it has to be a drop down
box with set names.  These name should probably be set in the Account Manager,
maybe under something like "Identities".  If this feature should be added, it
should be implemented in a way to keep it from being abused.

The real question is who are these "people" that we (the internet community)
don't want to abuse this feature.  To me, there are four groups of internet
users: the newbies, the average users, the power users, and then there is the
"eleet" hacker users.  By keeping a set list of names on the compose screen,
newbies will not be able to accidentally mess with something.  The "eleet" group
should not be addressed because there are plenty of e-mail senders that let
people change the e-mail address to whatever.  If this feature was to be
implemented, the power user hopefully will be able to find and use these
identities, not to abuse them.

But, then there is the average user.  This is the group that I think the feature
should be protected from.  Maybe putting it under an advanced button would do
it.  Maybe just putting up a cryptic message that says "...the Internet Police
will come and beat you and your dog up if you lie about your e-mail address..."
whenever an identity is added.

Whatever the solution is, I do not believe that one should have to add more
accounts for more identities for the following reasons: it clutters the mail
folders pane, it confuses people on what should be entered in the pop/imap
server field, if the user does put the same server for multiple accounts,
messages will be scattered through the account folders depending on where the
user presses the "Get Messages" button, and it is probably inefficent (in terms
of disk space, processor, and bandwidth).

The next part of the solution is what should be the "default" identity.  From
what I have read on Bugzilla, this is a heated debate.  From what I have
gathered, there are three solutions:  a defualt e-mail address, one that depends
on the folder that you are in, and a e-mail address that depends on the headers
of the current message.  I proppose a fourth, the remember-your-last-choice
option.  Plus, why can't Mozilla use all of these features?  Can't there be an
option to choose one of these in the Account Manager box?

I am sorry if I have wasted your time with my quite length discussion.

Comment 3

[Tony Jordan]

Marking as duplicate of 17319. 


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 17319 ***

Comment 4

[laurel]

Marking verified as a duplicate.

Comment 5

[Ben Giddings]

I don't quite understand why this is closed.  This is a feature I think makes a
lot of sense too, and it currently doesn't work.

Right now I use a few different addresses, but they all end up in one mailbox. 
I would like to be able to reply using the email address to which something was
sent.

For example: I fill out a form to download "net speeder-upper 4.0" and it
requires an email address so they can mail me the activation key.  I give them
my [e-mail] email address, and start getting unwanted spam from them
saying "to unsubscribe reply to this email with REMOVE in the subject line". 
But if I can't send the email *from* my spam address, I can't be unsubscribed.

How hard would it be to add a feature that sets the default "from" address when
you're replying to an email to be the one to which the original message was sent?

Currently I do this by having a "local folders" email address that I use when I
want an alternate address, however this causes other problems.  Instead of the
"sent" email going into the appropriate sent folder for the account, it goes to
the local folders "sent" folder.

Any suggestions?  Any chance this will be fixed?

Comment 6

[Ben Giddings]

This may be a duplicate of bug 96180 (which is currently marked as new)

Comment 7

[Jerry Baker]

Reopening since bug 17319 was fixed and this bug was not.

Comment 8

[Jerry Baker]

D'oh! Marking confirmed

Comment 9

[Greg K.]

*** Bug 165322 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Jo Hermans]

see bug 44863 - there is already support it in the backend, but not yet in the
front end. Shall we add this as a dupe ?

Comment 11

[Jacob Eisinger]

Yes - I believe Bug 44863 is everything I intended when I wrote this report. 
Feel free to mark this bug as a duplicate of Bug 44863.

Comment 12

[Daniel Wang]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 44863 ***

Comment 13

[Vedran Miletic]

v