Re: user-visible goals

["william@xxxxxxxx" <william@xxxxxxxx>]

This was extremely, extremely good list!!!

I would add couple things mentioned on the mail-ng mailing list but not 
specified here:
- Users want to be able to make sure they are the only ones who can use 
their email address (no spoofing)
- Some users want to be able to determine how they receive the message 
(traceability)

Also, although partially mentioned in the first "spam" part, I'd more 
specifically:
- Users want to be able to control who can send them messages
- Users want to make sure its clear how their email address got to the sender
  and why they are sending the message without reading entire message

And separately also
- Some users want to check if message would be delivered, such as if email
  address exists at all and if they want to accept such message even before
  attepting to send the message

On Sun, 1 Feb 2004, Keith Moore wrote:

> 
> > State the issues in entirely non-technical terms.  What enhancements
> > do we seek, in terms that are visible and important to end-users and
> > to operators?  No reference to protocols or formats is permitted.
> > Talk only in terms of user interactions and operator actions.
> 
> That's an excellent idea.   Caveats:
> 
> 1. Users have widely varying wants/needs; some users' needs may be
>    important even if the average user doesn't share those needs.
> 2. Even a single user can have contradictory wants/needs (sometimes
>    without realizing this).  Large groups of users certainly do.  
>    At this stage it makes more sense to be explicit about the 
>    (apparent or real) contradictions than to try to resolve them.
> 
> With those in mind, here's a stab at it:
> 
> - Users want to be able to read mail without seeing a significant amount 
>   of spam.  (to a recipient, "spam" is basically anything that the 
>   recipient doesn't like that was sent by anyone except a person known 
>   personally to the recpient)
> 
> - Users want to be able to send messages to large number of people
>   at low cost.  (yes, this includes spammers, but it also includes
>   mailing lists).  
> 
>   (note: spammers are users too.  while it's easy to dismiss spammers'
>   needs as not being legitimate, this is over-simplistic.  anyway,
>   I'd rather make this user desire explicit than to implicitly assume
>   that spam is never legitimate or that there aren't any legitimate
>   reasons to send out large numbers of messages.)
> 
> - Users want to be able to read mail without exposing their computers
>   to viruses or worms.
> 
> - Users want to be able to exchange messages without risk of the contents
>   of those messages being exposed to others.  
> 
> - Users want mail to work reliably - meaning that if they send a message
>   that message will get there in a timely fashion unless there is some 
>   "valid" reason that the message could not be delivered.  To a user,
>   a "valid" reason is something like "there is nobody at this address" or 
>   maybe something like "the message is too big" but NOT something outside
>   the user's ability to understand or control like "DNS lookup failure" 
>   or "MTA congestion" or "data format conversion error"
> 
> - Users want to be able to tell whether a message has been delivered.
> 
> - Recipients want to be able to reliably determine who sent a message  
>   (especially if the message was sent by someone known to the recipient, or if
>   the message  was sent by someone who is well-known, or if the message was
>   sent by someone associated with a well-known organization)
> 
> - (some) Users want to (occasionally) be able to send mail anonymously
> 
> - Senders want to be able to request receipt notification and be notified
>   if/when the message was received
> 
> - Recipients want to be able to read mail without the senders of messages
>   knowing that they've read their mail
> 
> - Users want to be able to exchange documents in native format
> 
> - Users want to be able to exchange messages without worrying about
>   whether the recipient can read the data format used in the message
> 
> - Users want to be able to exchange mail in any language that they can
>   read and write
> 
> - Users want to be able to spell their own email addresses in their
>   native languages
> 
> - Users want their email addresses to be memorable and transcribable
>   by recipients (who may use a language other than the sender's 
>   native language)
> 
> - Users want to be able to access their email via a variety of 
>   devices (desktops, webmail, PDAs, mobile phones, ???)
> 
> - Some users want to be able to access other messaging systems
>   (voicemail, fax) using email tools 
> 
> - Users want to be able to easily, correctly, and confidently configure the
>   tools that they use to read and send mail (as well as any other parameters
>   that they need to configure for mail to work well)
> 
> - Users want to be able to recall messages that have been sent but
>   not yet read.
> 
> - Users want to be able to send messages that will be disappear
>   if not read before some interval  (expiration)
>