3 ms·

In the 1990s it was common to exchange short, 1-line, emails - or even emails where the entire message fits in the subject line. …you can still do that on inte

In the 1990s it was common to exchange short, 1-line, emails - or even emails where the entire message fits in the subject line. …you can still do that on internal email systems; but over the internet any kind of unsolicited short email will probably be dropped by Bayesian filters on the recipient’s side because the information-capacity of a short email is… well, short, making it harder to discern from short spam/attack emails. Also, email clients are getting heavier and slower: (Classic) Outlook M365/2025/Etc somehow takes a grating 10+ seconds to fully load and warm-up on my brand new machine, while double-clicking an email to open it makes the whole thing awkwardly hang for 2-3 seconds, even when working offline. It’s given me a huge aversion to using email in general, so I’m not going to send a 1-liner via Outlook.

ASalazarMX 1y ago
> (Classic) Outlook M365/2025/Etc Why would you subject yourself to that torture? Thunderbird is like LibreOffice is to MS Office, meaning you will have to adapt, but it is still lean for being a contemporary email client.
- DaiPlusPlus 1y ago
  > Why would you subject yourself to that torture? MS can take my VBA macros from my cold, dead, fingers: the JS-based replacement in New Outlook is incredibly neutered, such as local filesystem access or managing message attachments.
klank 1y ago
In my personal experience, while the experience you're describing is frustrating, it didn't feel connected. I don't see a connection to prevalence of HTML being a driving factor. Even when I was using pine I'd use irc or aim if available. For me, it was simply the lack of adoption of messaging options that made email the default tool. Once cell phones came along and people got accustomed to instant quick messaging that was generally ubiquitous, email was out, whether you were using pine, outlook, or something in between.
umbra07 1y ago
> …you can still do that on internal email systems; but over the internet any kind of unsolicited short email will probably be dropped by Bayesian filters on the recipient’s side because the information-capacity of a short email is… well, short, making it harder to discern from short spam/attack emails. I do this all the time. I don't think I've ever had a dropped email, because I always get a response. > Also, email clients are getting heavier and slower: (Classic) Outlook M365/2025/Etc somehow takes a grating 10+ seconds to fully load and warm-up on my brand new machine, while double-clicking an email to open it makes the whole thing awkwardly hang for 2-3 seconds, even when working offline. It’s given me a huge aversion to using email in general, so I’m not going to send a 1-liner via Outlook. Does your average human really care though? Also, mobile email clients (Gmail, Apple Mail) load roughly as fast (or faster) than popular IM apps (Whatsapp, Slack, Discord). Discord in particular is a huge resource hog, with very noticeable load times, and semi-advertisement popups that you have to click through. I have not seen any evidence that this diminishes Discord's popularity.

ASalazarMX 1y ago

> (Classic) Outlook M365/2025/Etc Why would you subject yourself to that torture? Thunderbird is like LibreOffice is to MS Office, meaning you will have to adapt, but it is still lean for being a contemporary email client.

DaiPlusPlus 1y ago
> Why would you subject yourself to that torture? MS can take my VBA macros from my cold, dead, fingers: the JS-based replacement in New Outlook is incredibly neutered, such as local filesystem access or managing message attachments.

klank 1y ago

In my personal experience, while the experience you're describing is frustrating, it didn't feel connected. I don't see a connection to prevalence of HTML being a driving factor. Even when I was using pine I'd use irc or aim if available. For me, it was simply the lack of adoption of messaging options that made email the default tool. Once cell phones came along and people got accustomed to instant quick messaging that was generally ubiquitous, email was out, whether you were using pine, outlook, or something in between.

umbra07 1y ago

> …you can still do that on internal email systems; but over the internet any kind of unsolicited short email will probably be dropped by Bayesian filters on the recipient’s side because the information-capacity of a short email is… well, short, making it harder to discern from short spam/attack emails. I do this all the time. I don't think I've ever had a dropped email, because I always get a response. > Also, email clients are getting heavier and slower: (Classic) Outlook M365/2025/Etc somehow takes a grating 10+ seconds to fully load and warm-up on my brand new machine, while double-clicking an email to open it makes the whole thing awkwardly hang for 2-3 seconds, even when working offline. It’s given me a huge aversion to using email in general, so I’m not going to send a 1-liner via Outlook. Does your average human really care though? Also, mobile email clients (Gmail, Apple Mail) load roughly as fast (or faster) than popular IM apps (Whatsapp, Slack, Discord). Discord in particular is a huge resource hog, with very noticeable load times, and semi-advertisement popups that you have to click through. I have not seen any evidence that this diminishes Discord's popularity.