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I get the feeling that this is a MVP or feature test for something bigger. Because truth be told, I don't see why people would care about someone's inbox health

I get the feeling that this is a MVP or feature test for something bigger. Because truth be told, I don't see why people would care about someone's inbox health, especially since people use their Gmail account as a garbage dump+todo list+backup. I've seen inboxes with THOUSANDS of unread email and most people I know don't archive anything at all.

mtgentry 15y ago
Yep, MVP indeed! Our core idea is that email interactions should be based on one's availability. More thoughts on that here: http://blog.getsmokesignal.com/post/10660730744 http://blog.getsmokesignal.com/post/10660730744
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  An interesting idea, but one I'd disagree with almost completely. Email works extremely well for me because I can receive it regardless of my availability, and respond to it when I have time. Your blog post notes that email interactions don't match real life; I agree, but I'd consider that a feature. I can easily solve the "important people" problem by using filters to call attention to email from those people, but I'd only need to do that if I couldn't keep up with email in the first place; currently I can see at a glance who my email comes from, and optionally cherry-pick mails to respond to first. Otherwise, to the extent email becomes more like real-life interactions, it becomes less useful to me.
rhizome 15y ago
I've seen inboxes with THOUSANDS of unread email This is me, for years.
- mtgentry 15y ago
  Maybe the solution to this is an algorithm that pings multiple data points to determine your availability.
  - 900 15y ago
    You mean like this one? http://www.wuphf.com/ http://www.wuphf.com/
- arkitaip 15y ago
  Just the thought makes me uncomfortable ;) I get stressed out with more than a dozen of email in my inbox, read or not...
dorian-graph 15y ago
> I've seen inboxes with THOUSANDS of unread email Is(n't) this 'bad'? I avoid email in some circumstances because people don't seem to use it well (Admittedly what is meant by 'well' can be subjective). Most of them have hundreds/thousands of unread emails.

mtgentry 15y ago

Yep, MVP indeed! Our core idea is that email interactions should be based on one's availability. More thoughts on that here: http://blog.getsmokesignal.com/post/10660730744 http://blog.getsmokesignal.com/post/10660730744

JoshTriplett 15y ago
An interesting idea, but one I'd disagree with almost completely. Email works extremely well for me because I can receive it regardless of my availability, and respond to it when I have time. Your blog post notes that email interactions don't match real life; I agree, but I'd consider that a feature. I can easily solve the "important people" problem by using filters to call attention to email from those people, but I'd only need to do that if I couldn't keep up with email in the first place; currently I can see at a glance who my email comes from, and optionally cherry-pick mails to respond to first. Otherwise, to the extent email becomes more like real-life interactions, it becomes less useful to me.

rhizome 15y ago

I've seen inboxes with THOUSANDS of unread email This is me, for years.

mtgentry 15y ago
Maybe the solution to this is an algorithm that pings multiple data points to determine your availability.
- 900 15y ago
  You mean like this one? http://www.wuphf.com/ http://www.wuphf.com/
arkitaip 15y ago
Just the thought makes me uncomfortable ;) I get stressed out with more than a dozen of email in my inbox, read or not...

dorian-graph 15y ago

> I've seen inboxes with THOUSANDS of unread email Is(n't) this 'bad'? I avoid email in some circumstances because people don't seem to use it well (Admittedly what is meant by 'well' can be subjective). Most of them have hundreds/thousands of unread emails.