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I switched to Fastmail from Gmail years ago. In the beginning I missed the tagging when I went back to a folder structure, but you get used to it. Other then th

I switched to Fastmail from Gmail years ago. In the beginning I missed the tagging when I went back to a folder structure, but you get used to it. Other then that, I'm super happy and can only recommend the service.

chrismorgan 8y ago
Labelling is definitely something that I miss from Gmail; I live without it at FastMail, but I and a few others of us in the company would really like it. Fortunately, we’ve established the technical foundation for supporting labelling with JMAP, which can work with both folders and labelling; I have no timeline (I don’t think it’s on a concrete scheduled roadmap yet), but we are planning on supporting labelling as an alternative to folders.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  Labelling was put into gmail and other google services because directories were too hard to implement and labels were seen as an easier approach. A single table in a database mapping labelName to documentId can implement labels with no extra constraints, and it scales really well. Put an index on labelName and you can easily list all documents with a given label. Put an index on documentId and you can easily list all labels a document has. I don't understand why other providers go to the significant extra effort of trying to implement directories.
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    The largest issue with labels is that it isn't standards compliant. Gmail does some absolutely weird crud at the boundaries of anything not Gmail, such as IMAP or your Takeout export, neither of which understands labels. FastMail's choice to wait until a new standard that supports it is available is a strong choice towards interoperability and standards.
    - londons_explore 8y ago
      Gmail was launched in 2004, and now 15 years later, the standards haven't caught up with something to support a widely used feature...
      - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
        Our standards haven't meaningfully changed in over 15 years, JMAP may be the first good attempt at doing so. I wouldn't say labels are widely used, Gmail is still really the only provider doing them I know of. It's just that that one provider is a monopoly.
werid 8y ago
An issue with fastmail folders is that you can't easily create or move them around in the structure without entering a settings page. Same with creating rules for folders, that's on a whole different page. This part of the system could really use some attention from their developers.

chrismorgan 8y ago

Labelling is definitely something that I miss from Gmail; I live without it at FastMail, but I and a few others of us in the company would really like it. Fortunately, we’ve established the technical foundation for supporting labelling with JMAP, which can work with both folders and labelling; I have no timeline (I don’t think it’s on a concrete scheduled roadmap yet), but we are planning on supporting labelling as an alternative to folders.

londons_explore 8y ago
Labelling was put into gmail and other google services because directories were too hard to implement and labels were seen as an easier approach. A single table in a database mapping labelName to documentId can implement labels with no extra constraints, and it scales really well. Put an index on labelName and you can easily list all documents with a given label. Put an index on documentId and you can easily list all labels a document has. I don't understand why other providers go to the significant extra effort of trying to implement directories.
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  The largest issue with labels is that it isn't standards compliant. Gmail does some absolutely weird crud at the boundaries of anything not Gmail, such as IMAP or your Takeout export, neither of which understands labels. FastMail's choice to wait until a new standard that supports it is available is a strong choice towards interoperability and standards.
  - londons_explore 8y ago
    Gmail was launched in 2004, and now 15 years later, the standards haven't caught up with something to support a widely used feature...
    - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
      Our standards haven't meaningfully changed in over 15 years, JMAP may be the first good attempt at doing so. I wouldn't say labels are widely used, Gmail is still really the only provider doing them I know of. It's just that that one provider is a monopoly.

werid 8y ago

An issue with fastmail folders is that you can't easily create or move them around in the structure without entering a settings page. Same with creating rules for folders, that's on a whole different page. This part of the system could really use some attention from their developers.