Format suggestion for held mail

[spiralocean]

I love the new look of the site! It's much cleaner and look great!

I do have a suggestion for formatting the held mail.

When I am looking through the held mail for any non-spam email, my process is to scan the subject line (that usually gets most of the spam) and if I find a subject that could be valid, then I look at the sender.

I think this process would be easier for me... and others... and the reporting would be more accurate if the following format was applied to the held mail web page.

1. A table is used, with columns that are consistent throughout.

2. Every email is only one line long, regaurdless of the browser size.

Since subjects and email addresses are variable lengths, if a long subject reaches the end of the column it either truncates or has an ... to indicate it is longer.

It would change the format from looking like this:

[4032] mccauley4hart[at]att.net (Thu, 24 Jun 2004 12:46:05 -0800 Preview )

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 19:41:05 -0100 (Blocked bl.spamcop.net )

[4033] bark.evans[at]rcn.com (You Qualified, please read Preview )

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 12:42:23 -0700 (Blocked bl.spamcop.net )

[4034] bark.evans[at]rcn.com (You Qualified, please read Preview )

Thu, 24 Jun 2004 12:42:23 -0700 (Blocked bl.spamcop.net )

To something like this:

[4032] | Preview | mccauley4hart[at]att.net|.............................................| 06/24/04

[4033] | Preview | bark.evans[at]rcn.com....| (You Qualified, please read.....| 06/24/04

[4034] | Preview | bark.evans[at]rcn.com....| (You Qualified, please read.....| 06/24/04

(I put the preview at the front because it is a fixed width)

(4032 didn't have a subject line, I placed ... there just to hold the table)

This would make it much easier for me to scan and to find the non spam.

¢¢

[StevenUnderwood]

That page has a history that includes an announcement at one point it was going to be removed completely and/or all development stopped on it. The push was to use the webmail applications Held Mail folder for this purpose.

I don't know what the current status is other than it currently is not going to be removed.

The only addition to the webmail view of Held Mail I would like is the addition of the bl that cuased the hold as I find that useful in fonding the false positives (though I have few of those any longer).

[moonbroth]

When I am looking through the held mail for any non-spam email, my process is to scan the subject line (that usually gets most of the spam) and if I find a subject that could be valid, then I look at the sender.

That's basically the same as my process. So I find it rather odd that you'd list the (usually meaningless) Sender line next to the check-box and preview button. Let's face it: those are almost always forged.

If the column order went: [Check-Box], [Preview], [subject], [sender], that'd work for me. The subject might be meaningful - you want to associate that with the check-box/preview. A second line below could then give the reasons for blocking, as at present. (Indented, so it doesn't overrun the check-box).

What I would love to have is the ability to tick an additional check-box to send a Quick Report to another appropriate reporting address -- whether it's piracy[at][software-supplier].com (microsoft, corel, adobe...) for the OEM etc. scams; the webcomplaints[at]ora.fda.gov address for drug spams; enforcement[at]sec.gov for stock pump scams; and good old uce[at]ftc.gov for the rest.

I know "quick reporting" is meant to be quick (and that if I want to report these in detail, I could do it the old-fashioned, slow way), but for so many spams you can see from the subject line where to report them to... processing them one by one is kinda tedious. Could this maybe be a drop-down menu - Quick Report (Drug); Quick Report (Stock Pump); Quick Report (Software); etc.?

Cheers, Nick

[hank]

What they said.

Please.

Tabs, fixed length fields -- this used to be possible to set, before the ugly useless sidebar intruded.

If you gotta force Help on people who don't need it, the Paperclip is the traditional way to do it, eh?

Can't even block the thing with AdBlock; can't make the text small enough to make it not wrap (OSX, Firefox, Powerbook G3).

[spiralocean]

So I find it rather odd that you'd list the (usually meaningless) Sender line next to the check-box and preview button. Let's face it: those are almost always forged.

If the column order went: [Check-Box], [Preview], [subject], [sender], that'd work for me.

It really doesn't matter to me what order the fields are in, that was just an example.

The part that would speed up reporting, is fixed width and one line per email.

[moonbroth]

The part that would speed up reporting, is fixed width and one line per email.

Yep. Something else that would speed things up for me is if the Select Action drop-down list-box could appear next to the Release / Delete selected items buttons at the top and bottom of the Held Email page.

(If I had a dollar for every time I clicked to "select all" on a list of a hundred or so held messages, scrolled down to the bottom to check for (and deselect) any false positives, then clicked "Release / Delete" and got reminded that I hadn't selected an action back at the start... well, if I did, I'd be able to buy Julian several beers. He'd deserve them all, mind you ).

Cheers, Nick

[hank]

Amen, again.

Question -- is there a keystroke to "advance to next item's checkbox" somewhere?

Navigating the d*mned mouse down the hundred or more items clicking in those little boxes just hurts. The old Mac trick of holding the shift key to constrain motion to vertical or horizontal doesn't work. Tab doesn't work (shouldn't it, here?).

After my carpal tunnel surgery failed, I've got to live with deteriorating motor control. Any keyboard control helps greatly. (And you youngsters beware, if you find yourself dropping little things -- see a neurologist immediately; pain is NOT always present before serious nerve damage has already happened, with repetitive use injuries.)

[StevenUnderwood]

Navigating the d*mned mouse down the hundred or more items clicking in those little boxes just hurts.

I don't know the answer to your question and I assume you are talking about checking the messages in either Webmail (INBOX.Held Mail folder) or on the VER Held Mail web page here and not the few checkmarks left unchecked after parsing a spam.

I have always found it easier to Chech All and uncheck the few (if any) that don't belong to the group. Saves a lot of clicks.

In webmail, there is a unlabeled check box in the heading row and check box column that will select all messages. Alt/N is the Accesskey for that.

In VER, there is a "Check All" link which will mark all the messages.

P.S. Thanks for the advice. I hope I remember it when/if I need it.

[nlnoll]

The "Preview" link on "Held Mail" should always open in a new window. If I forget to right click and select the "open in new window" option, it's always painful to get back -> Back button, Page Expired, Click on Resend Information, Garbage Response, click on "Held Mail" again to get a clean response, then I'm at the top of the list again.

[Lydiard]

I love the new look of the site!  It's much cleaner and look great!

I do have a suggestion for formatting the held mail.

When I am looking through the held mail for any non-spam email, my process is to scan the subject line (that usually gets most of the spam) and if I find a subject that could be valid, then I look at the sender.

That's the same process, I use - and it mostly works.. However, the feature I'd most like to see is that having queued a bunch of spams for reporting and clicked on the delete/release button, the report spam page should automatically load, and even better, with the first spam already processed and ready for reivew and reporting - this would save me 2 clicks per visit - and a further click for every spam. On average, I think I'd sake like 50 clicks a day and reporting would be much smoohter.