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Anyone dislike Gmail's threaded structure?

by livemusic
25 replies
This continues to bug me, might be a deal killer for me to stay on Gmail. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but Gmail uses a threaded structure. A reply to an email creates a string, a thread of related emails. But for some reason which I have not identified, I sometimes miss an email someone sent me. I don't know how I miss it, I just do. Either it is not showing up on my screen, or is is showing up, but my brain doesn't recognize it as "new" email because it has the identical subject as the first email. Beats me, all I know is that I find emails sometimes from a week or two back and I'm like, yikes, there's an email that I missed.

Another way that I miss email is... I have a contact form on my website. When party A writes me through that contact form, no problem. But then, if party B writes me (and these people have nothing to do with one another), the email from party B gets put into the thread with party A. And then when party C writes me, same thing. And sometimes, I don't find the party B and party C emails for several days.

I suspect some of this problem is due to information overload... possibly some of this is "my fault," but due to information overload, they get missed. Point is, the Gmail threaded structure just might not work for me.

I depend on email, this won't cut it. I don't know, do I have something misconfigured? I think I checked into this once before and in essence, was told that it's just the way Gmail is.

I have a yahoo account and I don't think it works this way. I suppose I want to stick with web-based email. I get much more spam on yahoo, though.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?
#dislike #gmail #structure #threaded
  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    When there is a new thread the email goes bold so not sure how you can miss that.

    But whatever worrying about things you can't change seems like a waste of time to me.

    Either learn to use the tool and its features or find one you can work with.

    Quentin
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulBaranowski
    I can hear ya.

    I've had several people around me who experience similar issues with Gmail because of the threaded structure you refer to.
    There are only two ways i found to minimize the risks of missed emails:
    - check back the important threads periodically by unfolding and running through them - takes only 1-2 min to see if you missed something
    - with long business correspondence,start a new thread for each new sub-topic to avoid massive threads and minimize lost emails.

    Other than that,free email is free email,what can i say:-)

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author livemusic
    I know that Gmail is enormously popular. What about NOT using web-based email... Outlook or Thunderbird or (something else). what do you guys use?
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinemoney00
    I love it, for me it helps me view all the conversations I've had with whoever that has emailed me
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  • Profile picture of the author Aljiro
    Actually I kinda like Gmail's Threaded Structure. It keeps everything looking neat and tidy.

    If you want to not miss important emails and you know whose messages are important you can just set up filters. Its an extremely useful feature.

    Thanks,

    Aljiro
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  • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
    Virgin media have recently changed their structure so its a lot more like Gmail and I detest it.

    Luckily I use outlook so it doesn't usually bother me very much, but if I'm away and accessing my mail online its a nightmare. (And I pay for this)...

    They also for some weird reason now don't delete once downloaded to Outlook so I have to periodically login and delete thousands of the damm thing

    I hate "improvements" sometimes

    Kim
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Antoni
      When I first got gmail I sort of hated the threaded structure. At least for the first few days. Now, I love it and I don't think I could go back to the "old" way. lol

      It's funny how things happen like that.

      It's very nice to be able to scroll through an entire conversation easily. And like another poster said you just look for the bold text, that's all your new email.

      Give it a little time and you should come around to liking it. At least I did.
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      • Profile picture of the author grayambition
        Originally Posted by Mike Antoni View Post

        When I first got gmail I sort of hated the threaded structure. At least for the first few days. Now, I love it and I don't think I could go back to the "old" way. lol
        Pretty much ditto for me. Until recently, I sent my gmail to Thunderbird. But now I like it right where it is.

        I do wish, though, that there was a default for opening threads with all posts expanded. Any beta testers know if this is also in the works.

        I love labels, and, as an old DOS/macro person, I love that my fingers never have to leave the keyboard.
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  • Profile picture of the author sharp
    Pretty much everybody loves it.
    ...but if you can't cope; they have non-threaded in beta.

    : )
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    I hate it too but I'm used to it now.
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  • Profile picture of the author BillyBee
    I don't see the downside. How can you miss the new email when it looks exactly like a new email in any other program? It's boldfaced just like any other system.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrewClement
    Im with ya...I cant stand it..especially when you have pages and pages of emails, and an old friend/partner emails you and the new email ends up on page 7.

    Anyways, learned to live with it..but I definitely hear you on this one.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
      I hate almost everything about Gmail, except that when you have the Google toolbar installed, a little envelope pops up that alerts you to a new message.

      Their threaded structure is really messy, in my opinion. I don't miss messages, but they are hard to sift through, especially when there's 20 replies in one thread.

      I do use Mozilla Thunderbird for my webmail derived from the domains I own. I know I could use it for Gmail too, but I just don't. Maybe I don't trust that it will actually forward all the emails and some might get skipped.
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  • Profile picture of the author ArticlePrince
    Just hate to start using gmail a few days ago; I honestly don't get it. I have 7 different threads from one person, and I have to check all of them to find the new message each time. Thunderbird will fix it though :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author sitefurnace
    I don't mind the threaded structure but what really bugs me is when the correspondant decides to start a new thread. You can't merge them to keep them in one place. You now have two threads going and that confuses things
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    • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
      Originally Posted by sitefurnace View Post

      I don't mind the threaded structure but what really bugs me is when the correspondant decides to start a new thread. You can't merge them to keep them in one place. You now have two threads going and that confuses things
      Yes - I hate it like the plague! And heaven forbid someone else emails you between time - then you have to sift through several to find the original threads.
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  • Profile picture of the author Domenic Carlson
    This happens a lot where I don't realize that I have missed an email until I go through and re-read the whole sequence. I know that they usually go bold, but in some cases they don't. I'm not sure how they can fix this, but it is a very small issue that can cause very major problems.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sylvia Meier
    I totally agree on the threaded issue. It drives me nuts. I have a couple sites set up just like you mentioned with the contact form and it lumps ALL of them into a single thread which just drives me nuts. It works so much better for me to have them seperated so I am glad to hear beta offers this, I for one will be happy to use it.

    Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author JayPeete
    Yeah, it's a pain but I have gotten use to it though.

    I don't use it for business because it is just too easy to use the free email from your hosting provider and it's more professional.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Transue
    I use it and like it, but have yet to have the problem of missing emails...or at least I don't think I have. I would have a big problem with the threading structure if I was.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    Can't say I like it, took me way too long to get used to it and I've
    still managed to send a dam reply to myself like an idiot more than
    once.

    I usually "expand all" now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    I don't mind the threaded structure but I get very annoyed when it pulls emails I have deleted back into the thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author mobilelocal
    the "thread" as you like to call gets bald when you have received a new message. Easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimG
    Initially I wasn't a big fan of it but once I become used to seeing it I grew to accept (note I didn't say like) it.

    Usually when I respond to an email I just delete it anyway or my threads would be extremely large.

    Tim
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