Sometimes a Mailbox is Just Not a Mailbox
I recently added a section called Index Color Rule and Virtual Mailbox Example to my Power Pine page. There, I mention that you can use a Pine virtual mailbox (or saved search) to deal with Solicited-Bulk-Email messages, ToDo messages, MaybeSpam messages, as well as all other facets of your messaging world. Since writing that, I have realized that I need to clarify what I wrote in Using a MaybeSpam Mailbox last week and what I've been writing about for years on my Reverse Spam Filtering and other pages. Here's my attempt at clarification:
When I write about dealing with messages, I often use the word "mailbox" to mean a virtual mailbox, i.e., a set of messages that match a set of conditions. I don't care about the underlying data structure or what an actual "physical" mailbox comprises. To me, what's important are the different views, or virtual mailboxes, that I can use to manage my messages. Thanks to Gmail, Opera Mail, and all the other tools that support tags, labels, and keywords, more and more people are getting used to -- and demanding -- the ability to slice & dice their data however they like. So, in summary, sometimes a mailbox is just a mailbox, but sometimes it's just not.
I hope this helps to clarify this very abstract -- and very useful -- way of thinking about messaging!
When I write about dealing with messages, I often use the word "mailbox" to mean a virtual mailbox, i.e., a set of messages that match a set of conditions. I don't care about the underlying data structure or what an actual "physical" mailbox comprises. To me, what's important are the different views, or virtual mailboxes, that I can use to manage my messages. Thanks to Gmail, Opera Mail, and all the other tools that support tags, labels, and keywords, more and more people are getting used to -- and demanding -- the ability to slice & dice their data however they like. So, in summary, sometimes a mailbox is just a mailbox, but sometimes it's just not.
I hope this helps to clarify this very abstract -- and very useful -- way of thinking about messaging!
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