Web Mail Blog

Hello. I just encountered 5.50.

Here is what you have to say about the SPAM and DELETE buttons reversed: Caution - if you're like me and you use Web Mail a lot with the preview turned on, you'll probably click the Spam button a few times without looking, meaning to click Delete, since they changed places. I got used to it pretty quickly.

So why were they reversed in the first place? Remember: "Just because you CAN change something, it doesn't necessarily mean you SHOULD."

Those buttons were not broke, and they didn't need fixin'.

Great news on the upgrades...the closer you can get to Yahoo's latest e-mail offering, the better. ;)

(1) Please swap the position of the DELETE and SPAM buttons back to what they were before.

There is no reason to change their positions and you're only going to upset people like
me who use WebMail everyday (and are now hitting SPAM instead of DELETE)

(2) Please change back the viewing of non-HTML messages to the previous FIXED-WIDTH font
(or at least provide a option in preferences). I can't stand looking at messages with the
non-Fixed Width font you've chosen.

I am disappointed that the lines are gone. With my eye condition this new version is very hard for me to follow. Also the appearant deletion of the previous and next buttons are missed. I know things need to go forward because no one is ever satisfied with what they have, but just wanted to tell you what I miss about the old one.

I agree with the two comments on the WRONG position of "delete."

When designing options that move from left to right, designers ALWAYS
place the option that is used most often on the left. Spam is NOT the
option most used handling email.

I have now labeled as spam emails from my wife, my boss and my supervisor.
I should not have to retrain my muscles to use an unneeded email upgrade.

I agree with the delete spam button placement. I automatically thought I deleted some stuff, but instead they got marked as spam ... ooops. Please switch them around.

I HATE the fact that I can't forward my e-mail anymore (at least not in one quick step). Now all my recipients have another extra step to open as an attachment. Come on Earthlink -- If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

If it ain't broke, why fix it?...EXACTLY RIGHT. Delete is used far more often with Web mail than any other button, so you moved it and now after years of being able to review my Web mail quickly because my reflexes are trained, you force me to limp along slowly just because some programmer got a bright (NOT!) idea. Go back to the original sequence. Second, IE's text-size control suddenly has no functionality (or virtually none). I need the "largest" option because of my sight, but you've forced me to view the message list as tiny type. NOT a very good idea. And please don't tell me the functionality still exists, since I just tried it several times and the difference between "largest" and "medium" is for all practical purposes non-existent. So far, from an 11-year customer's perspective, I am most definitely NOT impressed with an unnecessary "improvement". But then, I'm stuck with it aren't I?

How can you export web mail addresses.......so they can be utilized in other mailers, is it possible.... an yes I have been looking...I see import...but not export or I have gone blind

Please please please move the delete button back to where it was. And I agree, if it isn't broken, don't fix it. And now all the messages look all crammed together. Sheeesh. Earthlink is so good. Don't mess too much with it.
THanks.

So, what I see, I LIKE! But I will go along with the others in the Delete/SPAM conversation. Please Move DELETE back in front of (left of) REPLY. I noticed the move right away but my hand still wants to move like I have for years.

I'll continue to look for a Font/Size/Color preference option - like Outlook.

Thanks and keep up the good work with the changes.

I dislike the vertical compaction of the messages. The senders names run together, and with no lines separating the messages, it's even more hard to read the names. This is a bad trade off for more horizontal space for the subject line in a message.

your new version does not work well with firefox. the inbox doesn't have lines separating the mail list and the colors are gone. I'm not pleased with this upgrade.

It's not clear how you forward an email...Though "forward" shows up in my drop down menu
there is no apparent way to send it. How do I forward a message ?

Second, I now have marked as Spam a lot of the "sometimes" junk I let come through....so as the
consensus seems to be "if it's not broken...don't fix it." All you have to do is reverse the positons
of the buttons...a seemingly easy task.

By the way, the little changes are obvious and making "litle" changes is usually a massive task...
so thanks for keeping the webmail evolving...

I also agree with those not happy with the SPAM/DELETE switch.

I delete more emails than I mark as "SPAM". So that should be in the leftmost
position.

So far I have no problem with the type font, but the lack of lines between
items in the INBOX does make it look crowded and hard to follow, and I have
decent eyesight.

I dunno.. I like it... works for me... I admit I'm hitting the Spam button instead of the Delete... but that is no big deal...

Count me as a happy camper...

Donna

I just talked to live chat, and they explained why my Webmail looks different. I don't like that the message lines are so close together. It makes it harder to read, and I definitely don't need that. I would like to know why they think this is an improvement, or if they're going to improve on it.

Thanks,
Kris K

The new toolbar is not too bad, but I keep hitting the spam instead of delete. Could you make delete come before the spam. Spam should not be featured so prominently.

Thank you.

I was slightly uncomfortable with the new version, didn't like the placement of the spam button. Then recalled this comment page and saw that I was not alone: you could even move the spam button to the right of the drop-down box.
And thanks for the tip for Firefox -- my screen was a mess, but when I cleared the cache and started over, all seemed right.

I generally have to say I like this release. I noticed as soon as I logged in something was different. The button position swap is both a big deal, and not that big of a deal (if that makes any sense).

I still don't get the purpose of pre-loading the Compose window using javascript; it breaks compatibility with mobile/less-popular browsers that may not be able to handle the window switch, and makes the whole page take longer to load Every.Single.Time you do anything. It can be painful if you're on a slow dial-up connection. (go to a location in Rural USA that only gets 28.8 dialup and tell me the pre-loading saves time ;)

I really wish at the least that was an option to pre-load, or not pre-load, the compose screen.

I tend to agree with the delete/spam change. It would make more sense to have the delete button before the spam button. I use the delete button more on a daily basis than the spam button.

I also would like to add that the new view is very hard on the eyes. I prefer the old view of read/unread emails because of the seperation from one line to the next. The new version seems like the messages are stacked on top of each other - with very little space seperation - making it very hard to read flow wise.

Just my 2 cents!

In addition to the problem with the Spam button noted by others, the new interface has the Reply button where the delete button used to be when a message is open. I have thus accidentally hit Reply about 25 times this morning.

This isn't rocket science; it's basic interaction design, and basic common sense: if you're going to change items that users are habituated to, do so in a way that has minimal consequences for them. Earthlink fails at interface design once again.

Do not like the font for the inbox (or other boxes for that matter). Very blocky and harsh...not easy on the eyes. Liked previous font much better.

Hello, E-mail Guy!

The changes made in 5.50.1 have interacted in a detrimental fashion with the EasyList and EasyElement filters. I'll submit a request to the filter authors to see if we can fix that. In the meantime, users of Adblock Plus may want to disable the Add-On while in WebMail. BUMMER!

On Firefox 2.0.0.7 running in Mac OS 10.4.10, the text size controls still work just fine. I'm puzzled why one user is having trouble with that. As a work-around, when I run into a display with text that is too small but won't let me change font size, my response is to go to the Displays control panel and change the screen's resolution - crude but workable. (This typically also requires resizing the window too.)

I totally agree with the comment(s) that:
* we really should be able to select our own font (as well as it's size).
For myself, the new font is a little better than the old one, but *only* because it has higher contrast. I too have impaired vision. And I greatly prefer monospaced fonts regardless of the situation. Before anyone howls in disgust: YES, I KNOW MANY PEOPLE DETEST MONOSPACED FONTS. For myself, monospaced fonts are much easier to read than proportional fonts.
* you should not have reversed the Spam and Delete buttons - every previously enumerated reason is valid!

The new layout of the message list is a major improvement, yet has two minor boo-boos. I love that the Subject line now wraps so you see the entire subject without having to mouse-over, as illustrated below in the third and fourth message entries.

[I tried to insert a *.png screen shot here, but the system rejected it. Is there a way to do it (maybe a different format works)?]

The first minor boo-boo: There needs to be a tiny amount of enforced white space between each column. Notice in the above screen shot the yellow highlighted area. The size could easily be misinterpreted as 72 KB instead of the actual 2 KB. The other columns don't suffer from the lack of enforced white space between columns due to the alternating colors of the text. (If you *really* don't want to enforce white space here, change the color of the text in the Size column. I vote for purple.)

The second minor boo-boo: Any message size greater than 9 (KB, MB, makes no difference) forces the Size column to wrap, typically resulting in the waste of a chunk of vertical real estate with no real benefit to the user. That is also illustrated above in the last line with a size = 76 KB.

Re. Removal of Previous, Next, and Mark Unread buttons in Preview mode. I see that an abbreviated message list, in the previous style, is presented in a scrolling split view above the Preview pane, obviating the Previous & Next buttons. I feel that it was indeed a mistake to remove the Mark Unread button. Since I don't use the Preview pane for security reasons, I won't pass judgement or comment further.

OMG! After trying out Preview, the Message list has reverted to it's old format. I don't have time to troubleshoot it now...

I love that the pop-down from the "Move to..." button now correctly displays the hierarchy of the subfolders.

Overall, I Like What You've Done,

Brad

Well, I noticed something was different when I had a hard time reading the message list. I see that it is something that is considered "fixed."
"FIXED - The spacing of the message listing is now more compact vertically again so you can see more messages in the list. "
The compacting of the list is too tight, IMHO, and it is difficult to read. Please allow more white space between the entries in the list. Thanks for your consideration.

"8. Plain text messages will now display in a much more attractive and readable font (the same font you are reading right here)"

Sorry to disagree but I find the font neither much (not even a little) more attractive nor readable than the font used in version 5.xx that predated this "upgrade". I think BrightBoy (comment 3 above) had the right idea, make the displayed font an option in preferences.

wrt the spam/delete button spacing: current placement doesn't bother me. I use the spam button much more than the delete button. While webmail has a decent spam filter, I've noticed in the last 5-6 weeks that more and more spam is making it through the filters to my inbox. While it used to be about one a day, during the past 5-6 weeks it's more like 3-4 a day I've been marking as spam. Still not enough to be anything other than a minor annoyance.

The only thing I would really like to know is when will the mail stoarage space be increased? You've mentioned several times that it's coming. Will it be concurrent with one of the incremental upgrades or will it be seperate from them?

Thanks for the info about the recent e-mail changes. I did clear the cache and doing that returned the lines and easy reading of my e-mail. Thanks also for alphabetiizing the block e-mail list...a good move. My issue in using a Mas OS 10.4.10 with Earthlink web mail is that I cannot use any text enhancements such as text color or use italics or underlining, etc. I have tried the help link, your FAQ, and read recent comments but have not found any answers to this dilemma. What can you advise about this issue?

Yes, I keep hitting Spam instead of Delete. Why was the order of the buttons changed? Please put them back!!

And I'm REALLY NOT liking how crowded and tiny it is all of a sudden. Clearing the cache and reloading brought the lines back, but the type is still cramped and tiny.

How do I fix this? And if I can't, please fix it on your end.

This is truly annoying a nine-year customer.

gweisman

Personally, I'm very pleased with most of the changes. Although I was concerned at first that I couldn't forward a message anymore, I quickly found that I had two options, not just one. So I found this blog and checked out the other changes. I love that the blocked addresses are now in alphabetical order--what a pain that used to be. The repetition of the button bars at the top and bottom is a welcome addition. On the other hand, I can see where the Spam/Delete reversal would be an issue.

TIP for those who have trouble with the size of the print, try pressing and holding the Control key down, while scrolling up or down with the mouse. If you're using Windows, that should make your viewing screen larger and smaller, and it works with most other sites as well.

I'm looking forward to more updates. If they're like most of these, you're making this long-time user a happy camper.

I am 81 years old and thought I was doing good with my computer. Every time
you change something I have a hard time figuring it out. I have trried unsuccessfully
to print several things and cannot get it to print. Why can't you make something
simple.

Hi. Please add the ability to compose a message with embedded hyperlinks. Not just the naked URL, but regular text, clickable, with the URL embedded. Thanks.

I'll throw in my opinion on the position of the Spam and Delete buttons. They are backwards no matter how you cut it. We read left to right...so...the button used most frequently should be on the left...and that would be Delete. Even if you arranged the buttons in alpha order from left to right, it's still Delete first and then Spam. No logic was used in making the choice.

Next....there's one area where Yahoo Mail has always bested Earthlink Webmail. There's no ability to search WITHIN the body of an email message. Searching TO, FROM and SUBJECT doesn't provide enough power for me. I waste a lot of time sifting through messages. Thanks.

Very disappointing...I do not like the format (looks cheap and less professional) and the move button does not work well and mistake and lost files are occuring. I would suggest you revert until a more finished product can be developed.

Thanks

Don Paynter

Oh, one more thing - I noticed that new font right away, and I loved it. I thought it was a setting that the sender of the first new email I read had used, but all three of my newest emails showed up in it, and then I came here and read that it was part of the changes.

I have read the comments, though, and see that some folks are having trouble with it. So, again, you may want to consider making it an option.

But please, please, PLEASE don't move that Delete button back to its old place so close to Previous and Next without making it an option!

I decided to try the message preview feature this release. I hadn't used it before. I clicked on the "Show Preview" button and the previewed message shows up halfway down the list of e-mails. Is that preview pane supposed to persist after clicking on the "Check Mail" link? I was expecting it to stay until I clicked "Hide Preview" but found the pane goes away sometimes and I have to click "Show Preview" again to get it back. Again, it's only sometimes, as other times the preview survives clicking for new mail. I wonder if it behaved this way before the new release?

Thanks.

1. The SPAM and DELETE button is so close to each other, I clicked it wrong several times already. May be it should have some more spaces or in differ locations.

2. I do not see the MOVE ACTIONS drop down box in the header bar.

3. The line between each mail message header listing may reading kind of difficult. Suggest to change to every 5 or 10 message headers then a line instead of line all the ways. Please aware that users are reading from a bright background. After awhile, the line looks like flashing in front of you.

BC

How about a way to turn off the annoying moving ads? I am paying for this page and should not have to deal with these ads... if they're static, fine... but this is really annoying... I'll pay extra for this... please... stop the moving ads....

I hate the swap of the delete and spam buttons. I constantly hit the wrong one.

I absolutely agree with the "ain't broke -- don't fix it" comments above. This seems to be a gratuitous change just for the sake of making a change. I have yet to see any justification for it. I also agree with the comment that the most-used button should be on the end. For both of these reasons, the button should be put back where it was -- quickly.

The other changes are inconsequential to me. So far Earthlink has a long, long way to go to be anything like the Yahoo Mail account I have. As a 12-year Earthlink customer I am disappointed.

GLB

Posted by: michael short | September 28, 2007 11:06 AM | (9)

your new version does not work well with firefox. the inbox doesn't have lines separating the mail list and the colors are gone. I'm not pleased with this upgrade.
You should be seeing what is shown in the picture above, so you need to clear your browser cache and reload the page. That should clear things up for you.

Email Guy

Well, just call me ignorant. How exactly do I go about "clearing my browser cache and reloading my page?" I didn't see "clearing my browser cache et al in the "tools" tab...

I do not like these changes. Leave well enough alone!

Let's see...

Positives of the new release:

1. The main WebMail screen (INBOX) seems to be faster loading (especially appreciated on dial-up). I haven't tried compose yet, so I can't comment on how the JavaScript pre-loading "feels" (Justin's comment), but if it slows things down then it's probably not good.

2. Reducing the number of hops/clicks to do something is good.

Negatives of the new release:

1. I agree with most of the others: if there wasn't a valid reason to switch SPAM and DELETE, please switch them back (one of my job functions involves review of user interface design, and changing something that people are used to, unless there's a good reason, is not a wise move).

2. After seeing one incoming plain-text message that was deliberately laid out with columnar data, I second BrightBoy's plea to change non-HTML email rendering back to a monospace (fixed width) font. The email in question was very difficult to read in a proportional font (so, in this case, a proportional font was definitely NOT "more attractive and readable"). Hint: if you make this a preferences option, as BrightBoy suggested, the default should be original behavior (fixed width). Let people decide if/when to switch (just add something to let them know that new features/options are available). Actually, having a button on the message viewing page to switch between monospace and proportional might be a good idea (there should still be a preferences option to set the user's preferred default).

Following up on the second point, in the last couple of months, there have been two other changes made where the default behavior changed, and there wasn't any explanation of what to do (if anything) to get back to the old behavior.

One was the change so that the initial (default) display after logging in to webmail was news headlines, rather than INBOX. I'm wondering what the thinking process was when that decision was made. I logging into webmail. I didn't go to myEarthlink or some other portal. Presumably I want to look at my email, not news headlines. Offering the option is fine, but making the default news headlines was not kind to your users (this caused me considerable grief with my father, who is a naive user; I had to guide him through the process of changing his preferences). By the way, this change was also very unfriendly to dial-up users.

The other recent change was changing the sign-out destination to myEarthlink instead of the WebMail sign-in page. Again, for dial-up users this was very unfriendly, since myEarthlink takes longer to load. It was also unfriendly to users with multiple email addresses who want to check one address, log out, log in to the next account, etc. Changing the default behavior to go to myEarthlink wasn't the best decision, in my opinion—certainly not unaccounced. It took me a couple of weeks to track down the information that I could change the behavior back—but I shouldn't have had to.

Thanks for listening.

Hi!

Thank you, thank you for the extra folders in this new release.
This feature will make a big difference in organizing the email.

Looking forward to an easier time writing a message with a good font and color. Or to making the preference for the "color and graphics" page be a default that one can set. It takes a while to load the "color and graphics" option now; not fun to have to load the "write message" page twice if you want to send a message in a good font.

A request for a feature upgrade - Would love to be able to customize the signatures - with color or with a selection of fonts.

Note - This may be a bug. For Firefox 2.0.0.3 Mac, the "Write Message" link cannot be opened in a new tab or in a new window. All of the other options (Check messages, News Headlines, folders, messages, options like Preferences) can be opened this way. Would appreciate using this feature in Firefox - convenient for writing messages and being able to move from one open message to another quickly.

Thanks for your work.

As a user of web mail numerous times of day, would you please consider switching the spam and delete buttons? Particularly the buttons on the bottom of the list. Thanks.

Progress is always nice, and though I haven't personally had problems mixing up the spam and delete buttons, it does appear to be bad design to reverse their locations. Also, the new font in the plain text compose window is hideous. Please change it back to the previous font, or at least get something doesn't look like old English newspaper type.

Yeup, agree with the others about the switcheroo of the SPAM and DELETE buttons. I was wondering what the heck was going on in not having this "issue" before..............well, hello, duh, just discovered that there have been new changes to the web-based email program. Yeup, go back to the other way.....other than that, have to check out further the other "newly improved" features offered in this "upgrade".........An issue I have had since using only the web-based email is that when somebody sends me pictures in the body of the text, they do not forward at all...............hmmmmmmm, what is up with that......................Didn't see anything about that being addressed with this "upgrade.".............................

Other than that, I still think EARTHLINK rocks as the best ISP out there................

Is it me or the new version slower than the previous versions? Others and I have noticed that in IE6.0 SP2, SeaMonkey v1.1.4, and from multiple computers and ISPs.

I agree with most of the posts listed at the time I am writing this. The position change of the delete button--the button that I, and I suspect most users, use the most from its prominent left-most position just does not make any sense. And, for long-time users especially, it is extremely, and un-necessarily, irritating. Please switch it back, or at least give the users the option of arranging the buttons on the toolbar according to our preferences.

Great job on the new release! The interface is much more clean and modern. Really nice.

I would just echo some of the comments about the placement of the SPAM button. Users are more likely to use the Delete button more often than the Spam button, and given the fact that we read from left to right, the Delete button should be first on the left.

I would suggest to go one step further and move the Spam button to the other side of the Move drop-down. I hate accidentally marking mail as Spam because the buttons are too close to each other. I had the same issue with my POP client, Thunderbird, which allowed me to re-arrange the buttons.

I'm looking forward to seeing more new features coming soon, with FILTERS being #1 on my list. :-)

Switch the "Spam" and "Delete" buttons. I rarely use the "Spam" button, but use the "Delete" button all the time. That was an ill thought-out design move.

I agree with the comments above regarding the placement of the DELETE button. It, by far, is the most used button in my INBOX because the spam filter works very well and I get virtually no spam in my INBOX. I will use the DELETE button at least 1,000 times for each time I use the SPAM button and I am not exaggerating. In fact, I don't even remember the last time I had a spam email in my inbox. Put the darn DELETE button back where it was!!!!!!!

Also, more compact listing of emails may be fine for the youngsters but there are many of us for whom "compact" displays are a problem. I much preferred the old display which I found to be compact enough.

I must agree with the majority, change the position of the delete and spam button back to the original position. If I correctly remember from my discussions with Corporate Personnel several months ago, Earthlink is in the business to provide service Customers desire. I'll not go any further.

Second - my eyesight is not as good as it should be and the small print is difficult to read. Please consider changing this to larger print.

Hi,

I agree with some of the other people who have made comments about the location of the "spam" and "delete" buttons. Speaking just for myself, I use "delete" more than I use "move" and I use "spam" least of all. If I could arange the buttons, that is the order I would use: delete, move, spam.

I also agree with the people who would like to be able to download a file or the contents of a folder to their own PC. This isn't something that I want to do frequently, but it is something that I would like to be ABLE to do.

Bill

Thanks.
Changes keep me from getting old!

ditto on swaping the Spam and Delete buttons.

I missed the notice on the webmail sign in page about the new webmail format. So I was very annoyed about the bad screen I got on Friday and wrote a comment via "feedback" which seems to just go into an email blackhole.
Then I thought my screen would be restored when I logged in today, but no such luck.
It was only by chance that I found this blog which actually had some useful information.

You could have provided a link to the suggestion to "clean your cache" as I had no idea how to do that and had to poke around
a bit to find it. Now my webmail page is restored.

Mostly I don't care about the changes, except that I'm po'ed about the switching of the spam and delete buttons. It seems arbitrary at best and therefore now I have to pay more attention. Who needs it??
Especially because I usually delete my messages from the inbox screen - which I do so I can choose which of my messages to read next - I can't just slide the cursor up to 'delete' but have to be sure to slide it over. It doesn't ruin my day, but it puts in a more
prominent location the button that I'm sure most of us use less. The earthlink spam filter works fine and many days I get no spam
at all but every day I delete dozens of messages I don't want to save.

Keep in mind the rule - If it isn't broken don't change it.

Would it not have been possible to notify all webmail users by sending out a blanket notice? Or at least a message with a link to
further information for those interested.

I see alot of people who like the new 5.5 email. I don't like it one bit, again, if it's not broke don't mess with it!!!!! Man I hate change without any options of choice....

I like the new release. One issue I have is whenever I delete the last message, I get this message, instead of going back to the inbox:
"The message(s) that you selected does not exist any more in this folder. (The message may have expired, or you may have already moved or deleted it.)"
I'm using firefox, if that matters. Thanks!

EMail Guy,

Since you're reading the comments here, you've seen the many comments about switching the position of the Spam and Delete buttons. Who knows how many hundreds of others feel the same way, but don't know how to provide feedback on it.

Clearly that's the most immediate change needed to this version. As an old coot, it's hard for me to undo years of clicking a certain spot dozens of times a day. Could you at least give us some hint as to whether that change might be happening?

Thanks for your willingness to participate here.

I liked the delete button where it was before. I also had no problems with the old look. Before you change something it would be nice to take a poll and see if it is something people want.

I also don't like signing off one day and logging back on the next and everything has changed. Remember we pay you!!!!!

Earthlink is the only PAID service I've ever heard of which will delete all the e-mails in your inbox if you haven't logged in every month (I think). I find that beyond belief. You pay for a service and assume that when you go away overseas (especially to places in Asia where internet cafe computers often have keystroke loggers installed to capture your e-mail/password addresses) for long periods AND ARE PAYING YOUR MONTHLY fee, that your e-mails still get erased.

I am seriously thinking of leaving Earthlink permanently as my puny protest against such poor policy and service.

Agree with criticism here re: reversing the positions of Spam and Delete buttons. Can't say enough times that if it ain't broke don't fix it. What did this move "fix"?

I also have to register a complaint regarding the new action of the Move To... menu. It's just too easy to click the wrong item in a drop-down menu on a web page, and then your messages are off to some unknown destination. This is also a quasi-destructive action: although it doesn't destroy data, it does move it and makes it difficult to replace in the exact same original location (including message order). Generally any such action should receive confirmation from the user before executing. The presence of the "move" button is just such confirmation: the user picks a folder from the menu, sees it in the text box, and then confirms by clicking "Move." This is the correct behavior from a HI standpoint and should be restored.Z

Please don't change the font style when reading messages.
I like the Courier New font before,feel not good when reading this new font style.

I want the Forward button back!

Looks OK.

Please put the Delete and Spam buttons back to original positions. It is obviously causing a problem for a lot of us.

I am still unhappy that when I click the signoff button my browser is "hijack" to another web site. You added the news links to the page and I can click on one of those if I choose to go to another Earthlink site.

At least, give us the option!

Buster

E-mail guy,
I still have dial-up (sigh), and Windows 98 (don't laugh), and I did not install 5.5 because it said for high speed internet users. Should I try to install anyway?
My inbox page is a mess since the 28th and very hard to read - what can I do?

I also think the location of the DELETE button for open messages is poorly located. It is a heavily used button and it would be nice if it was all the way to the right or left instead of having to hunt for it when deleting a message.

I agree, move the Spam and Delete buttons back! Why would you ever change something as commonly used as that?? It's beyond annoying and a totally useless thing to do. How does that increase useability or customer satisfaction? It doesn't -- it only creates confusion.

Most of the changes look pretty good, but I have encountered one probem: When people receive my message the "From" just says my first name. I believe it used to say first and last name. Someone mentioned that they almost deleted my message before reading because they thought it was spam. Many spam messages only show someone's first name (e.g. Daphne, Tiffany, etc.). Also, people know several people with the same first name, so it is helpful to see both first and last name.

(1) The old format had the "Printable view" option which I used almost all the time to read text. The way the screen appears, I never see the rightmost text line on screen; I have to use the slider bar left-right, left-right to read. To get around this without the "Printable View" button, I now have to copy-and-paste text into Microsoft Word to read an on-screen page! PLEASE O PLEASE return the "Printable view" option.

(2) This may be related to my first concern. Your sample screen shows everything all-in-a-row, including the ads on the right. My webmail browser displays only the leftmost part of the ad (which is fine by me), not a full, complete screen as you depict.

Do I have to change the very size of my screen definition to fix these problems?

Could you modify the spaminator to allow the user to reject as spam specific foreign languages, such as Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Korean--basically options to "reject all non-English e-mail", or "reject all non-Romance-language e-mail" (which second option would allow French, Spanish, Italian to come through if a person wanted them?

I cannot read Cyrillic, Arabic, or other non-Romance-based languages, and they have no place even in my Suspect e-mail box.

Thank you very much.

I like the new e-mail 5.50. More emails per page. Snappy.
I do not like being thrown into earthlink preview when I sign out, want to go back to e-mail signin page.

I really like your latest webmail changes.

But, the one I am REALLY looking forward to is the increased storage space. When does that get launched?

Please switch the "delete" and "spam" buttons. It is way too easy to mark something as spam. Which doesn't do me any good anyway, as I long ago maxed out at 500 blocked domains. I don't see that "spam" serves any purpose against actual spammers, but I'm concerned I'm going to "spam" a friend.

first, DELETE, then SPAM. after i finish reading my email, i always CHECK ALL and then delete the messages. today i came within a hair's breadth of condemning most of my friends, colleagues, and business associates to the spam box! fix it!! and fix it fast!!
bq

A few comments:

1) I want to chime in with the others on the Spam/Delete buttons. I would much prefer those to be reversed. Perhaps I'm a slow learner, but I have accidentally hit the Spam button nearly every time I've tried to delete something.

2) The listing of the emails in the inbox seems to compressed. I am not old, but my eyes feel that way when I look at the screen now.

3) The lack of a real Forward button threw me, but after reading the instructions, I think I've got it. However, this is something that should be intuitive in any email application.

Do you have any plans for making Web Mail features more Mac friendly? One example would be a way to save emails to the hard disk without having to select and copy them into a word processing application.

Thanks very much.

hg

Please revert to horizontal ads across the top of the web page. The vertical ads reduce the width of the e-mail messages. Often I have to scrol right and left to read an e-mail when it scrolls of the viewable portion of the screen.

Otherwise I commend you for the improvements made to webmail.

Please switch the spam and delete buttons. I've already hit the spam button between 4-5 times today alone. Very annoying.

I agree wholeheartedly that the Delete buttons should be restored to their previous locations. This is really maddening!

I also MUCH MUCH prefer to use a fixed-width font for viewing my messages. That is one thing that has always annoyed me about GMail and now my Earthlink is doing it as well. Please at least make it an OPTION to use your "more readable" font!

Thanks.

when is earthlink webmail going to increase the storage space? it is way behind free programs such as gmail and hotmail.

thanks.

mari

Please switch the spam and delete buttons back the way they were. Aside from being very frustrating, it leads one believe that you get more spam emails than emails that you delete, and that reflects poorly on webmail. I like Earthlink email because I get so few spam emails, so you should set up your email that way so that new customers won't think about spam when they think about Earthlink email. I understand the need for spam controls, but on the other side of the delete button is a better and more user-friendly location.

I know of the new look, and I do have it...almost. The person the e-mail is from runs into the "subject line" and "size. What do I do to take care of these ? I have Safari 10.4. Should I upgrade my browser or Safari ??

I can still send and receive, but the page looks weird. I have contacted Earthlink thru a phone call Support and live chat. One told me that I have to reinstall my Safari software, and the other told me no, but I had to go to "feedback", but the answer I got from feedback did not help. HELP !!!! Thanks !!!!!!
I have re-freshed the page and cleared the cache, to no avail !!!

I like the simplified toolbar. Am not bothered by the spam/delete button switch at all. For me it's actually more intuitive to have the delete button to the right. Delete is final. It's kind of like the x in the upper right of any Windows window that closes the window. In either case, no big deal. Hitting spam by mistake can be reversed by going into the spam folder and mark it as "not spam". Do that a couple of times and you won't do it again.

Don't miss the underlines either. My old eyes were very happy last week when I noticed they were gone.

My biggest complaint with webmail is that it is slow compared to other web based programs like gmail and yahoo.

Here's another vote for the spam/delete button switch.

I'd like to thank you for moving the Delete button away from the Previous and Next buttons. Whatever you do, please, please, PLEASE don't put the Delete button back so dangerously close to the Previous and Next buttons!

I remember complaining to you about the Delete button being so close to Previous and Next in the early days of this blog, and you said it was something being done in a future release. Well, that future release is here at last.

I posted about this on Friday night, but it didn't appear here today after you picked up the comments from over the weekend. I hope I didn't violate any of the Ground Rules, because I try to be a conscientious user here. I've gone to the trouble of posting it again so that you'll see that at least one person out there likes the new positioning of the Delete button.

This posting about recent changes to Web Mail was found by accident through Chat help who referred me to it. Without that I never would have found anything about it. It appears to be an internal memo that customers were not supposed to see since I have never seen anything like these blogs. If this info is as important as it seems, there should be a way for Earthlink to share it with their customers.

I have vision problems and find the new proportional font that you are using very difficult to read. I can also no longer have my browser change the font size to anything near to being meaningful. Please consider adding an option to allow the user to select the font for plain text messages. About 98% of the messages that I receive are plain text. I also agree that re-arranging the buttons wass of little value as others have posted comments about, but I can live with that. I cannot live without being able to read the text.

Thanks

I agree with switching the SPAM/DELETE buttons as it was confusing. But please do it soon or we will be use to the way it is not and have to retrain fingers again.

A few times I noticed that the key of the 1st few emails get lost when I move around but it seems to be working correctly today.

I have a wish that in the SPAM box you ADD a button to allow me to forward the SPAM to an official site without having to add the spam address to my email. That seems to be the only way I can forward it right now.

Is there an easier way?

I still don't understand why we must put up with those annoying angle brackets at the beginning of every line when forwarding or replying to a message.
Why can't we have the option to NOT have those??

The "Forward" dropdown should be consistent with "Move to..." and contain ellipses, i.e., "Forward..." showing that you have another step and I would go a step farther "Forward as..." to give another cue that you need to make a selection from the dropdown.

Even though it is part of my occupation to figure out what was in the developer's mind, it took me several seconds to figure this out.

Note this is vast improvement over previous editions, please consider adding another task button "Forward Mail" and move the Spam button all of the way to the right, its now too close to the delete button and human factors don't prevent an accidental spam tag instead of deleting the mail. I caught myself twice the past 2 days almost taging mail as spam.

Dear Email Guy,

I check out my suspected spam box often, and I would like to be able to scroll down the entire list instead of having to switch between groups of 20. Could you add this change to your to-do list for me please?

John

Saw your advice to get IE 5.5, but where? MS doesn't support and seems to no longer have it on its site.

I totally agree with the Spam/Delete buttons and am happy to see they will be put back the way they were. Hurry, please.

The bigger problem I am having is that the advertisements which appear on the right side of the screen (even though I have popups blocked) appear to be taking over more of the page than the e-mail message itself, making it difficult to easily read the e-mail. I presume I'm not the only one having this issue.

Thanks.

Email Guy

Most changes are good, glad to see you're going to change the delete/spam buttons back, I almost put a spam block on my boss.

I am having problems reading the right most edge of some messages, even when using the "print" button.

I use Netscape and almost never had this problem when I looked for a print preview.

Another nice feature the print preview is that it allowed me to print only the pages I wanted -- saving trees.
How can we do that now?

Last -- how can we permanently change the font and color of the font? Having to do it for every message is a drag.

Thanks for your work.

Please also consider changing the order of the buttons at the top of each email. Delete used to be first and now Reply is first. I must have hit Reply (instead of Delete) about 200 times since this "improved" version first surfaced. Thanks for considering this.

OK, the other folks are right about the delete/spam buttons.

BUT...

BIG THANKS for fixing the resolution issue. This old guy uses 1440 x 900, it's the most I can read comfortably, and it bugged me to no end to be required to scroll down to sign off.

Thanks Again ! ! ! ;-)

It's very interesting how you choose which posts to "accept" and which to "decline".

All my posts criticizing your circa 1995 webmail client are not accepted. Will this one be declined too? I guess this isn't really an open and fair exchange of opinions.

I agree that the placement of the spam/delete buttons is odd..I also hit spam for delete dozens of times...I make myself stop and think before I do now...not very efficient. As for the ads to the right of the email....they are absolutely intrusive. I have had that problem for months now and have written about it and called about it many times. Huge jumping/flashing ads while you are trying to read email is very distracting. I almost dropped Earthlink because of it. I would be so happy if you could address this. I am slowly becoming used to the other changes and find them very useful.
Thanks!

Is the address book considered part of e-mail ?? I have tried for years to get last name first...
Thanks for listening...

The webmail page is way too cluttered. I am there to check my e-mail, not find out about education opportunites or any other advertised improvement to life.

FC

Posted Oct 2 I totally agree with the Spam/Delete buttons and am happy to see they will be put back the way they were. Hurry, please.

The bigger problem I am having is that the advertisements which appear on the right side of the screen (even though I have popups blocked) appear to be taking over more of the page than the e-mail message itself, making it difficult to easily read the e-mail. I presume I'm not the only one having this issue."

I find this area to be noticed more and more with the large number of advertisements being in animation. Hurts my eyes after a few seconds of trying to read mail while 1/4 of the screen seems to be trying its best to move around so I would read it instead of my mail.

Kinda show this box could be in the wrong place - it is either not noticed or is very very 'not liked'.

On the topic of the Forward control, I'd like to be able to select multiple messages and forward them all as attachments to a single outgoing email. I use the anti-spam service Knujon, and it's annoying to have to forward messages individually.

Hello Again,

• re. my earlier Comment (# 24), "5.50.1 ... interacted in a detrimental fashion with the EasyList and EasyElement filters":

Blowing out the browser cache fixed some, but not all, of the issues... I'll get back to you after I get to talk to my friends at the Adblock Plus site. I'm certain they can fix the remaining issues.

• For Byron (Comment # 26) and others who asked since then:

Email Guy has stated elsewhere on several occasions that the mailbox size increase will be phased in gradually over the next several-to-many months. (He didn't say so, but doing this requires replacing the Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) on the servers with bigger/faster models, something they do routinely as the drives age. The long standing industry practice has *always* been to guess-timate (a.k.a. "SWAG" - Scientific Wild Ass Guess) how long the drives will last and replace them shortly before they would fail anyway. Drive makers call this duration the Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF). Most drives actually last longer; unfortunately, a few don't... which is why we also have backups! ;-O )

May I suggest to Email Guy: Look for boxes that are habitually nearly full and "do" those first. I for one don't care. I always move the really big Keeper e-mails to my hard disk drive and erase them from the server, so my box has never exceeded 50% and usually is at about 25%. (It would be really nice if you provided that "Downloadable Mail Folder", discussed elsewhere (i.e. on other topic pages, and as echoed here by Comments #39 and #65), which would upgrade cleaning out server-based web mail folders from being a PITA to being a cinch.)

• re. Comment # 59 by M.R. Dallal:

This is an outstanding idea! I hope you will consider it seriously. If it was an option in my SPAM control panel, I would definitely enable it.

• My new 2-cents:

In like manner as the Toolbar appears at both the top and bottom of each page, so also the "Sign Out" link should appear at both the top and bottom of each page. A good place for the upper "Sign Out" link, IMHO, would be either immediately below the "News Headlines" link (a group of links which sees a lot of traffic) or after the Search Text Box at the upper right corner. Which is best is a toss-up, but consider that most web pages that have a "Sign Out" link or button typically put it in the upper right corner, and that is where I always first look for it. This also harmonizes with the idea that the least used item should be farthest to the right and/or the bottom. (I would NOT remove the lower "Sign Out" link. I predict that doing so would result in howling protests, because people are used to it being there!)

I Hope This Helps,

Brad

Move the "Spam" button after "move to" box and before the "Show Preview" box.

Are you planning on adding a feature to webmail that automatically pops up with a "NEW MAIL" alert? This is really needed!

Beth Levine

A few days ago I noticed that (in the list of all messages view) the SPAM button had apparently been ...relocated. I noticed this because, now, every time I try to Delete a message, I end up sending it to the SPAM window.
Would it be possible to move it back?

There should really be some logical order to which buttons are where. I think I used to hit Delete when I was trying to reply... (though, now that I think about it, that would be in the message window, not in the message*s* window)

and believe it or not, some people still run 800 by 600 on a 15 inch screen - which means that your layout continues to be too wide for me. I'm at work and I can't alter the resolution or the size of my monitor. I'm not sure what the solution to that would be...

aside from that my only wish would be that webmail could filter and/or thread. one mailing list I'm on overshadows all my other mail 15 to 1. I have to download to see my personal mail (I use Pegasus, which has filters, or Thunderbird which threads). I don't thnk Sort has ever worked properly in webmail, though if you tell me it has, I'll check it again.

Is it possible to use Mutt with earthlink's mail server? I'm almost desperate enough to try to learn it.

I do not like the new font with serifs. I find it harder to read than a sans serif style --- it seems to vibrate too much. Also, I liked having the Move button being separate from the folder choice. I often change my mind about which folder to move stuff too, and it is a real pain to have to go find it and move it to the right folder.

I also agree about the font size - it used to be bigger - that was better.

The SPAM and DELETE buttons need to be reversed too.... as others have said, I have come close SEVERAL times in the past few days to sending valid emails to SPAM instead of DELETE. (Good thing it asks first!)

I liked the earlier layout of email. Now it is clutterered, tight, small, and I'm getting twice as much spam as usual. Also don't like the spam button where the delete button was. My finger is getting used to it, but the sudden switch made me have to go to two steps instead of one.

I hope the final version gets completely rid of all the advertisemsnts. If I were signing up with earthlink for free, I would expect them, but you guys are going the way of Satellite TV...free of ads at first, then they slowly creep in and WE are stuck with 'em.

I have been with earthlink for years now. You do a great job. Please continue doing a great job by eliminating ads. I'll gladly pay a few $$ more for their elimination.

Hi, Email Guy,

Thanks for the clarifications about the inner workings at EL.

Oddly, I note some of the comment numbers changed between the time I submitted my previous post (#104 as I am submitting this) and the time it appeared. (I didn't know that could happen.) As the result might baffle some readers, here is what I really meant:

• the first two are still correct as of 2007/10/06 18:02 eastern:

#24 having been from me
#26 = "Posted by: Byron | September 28, 2007 4:03 PM | (26)"

• Comments #39 and #65

It appears you may have moved the original comments by those numbers to a different page... I can't find any trace of them now. Duh, I should have included the contributors name, like I did on the next one...

• Comment # 59 by M.R. Dallal" somehow morphed into:

"Posted by: M.R. Dallal, Brooklyn, NY | October 1, 2007 10:43 AM | (71)
Could you modify the spaminator ..."

At least the anomaly didn't prevent you from figuring out what I meant. From now on I'll just copy the "Posted by:" line.

Brad

The button bar should be consistent between the various pages. For example, the DELETE button should not be in a different location on the main page that lists all the email vs. the page that shows the contents of a single email. Common buttons such as DELETE should always be in the same location.

Why is the 'Forward' function a drop down and not a button? When I click on Forward in the drop down list, nothing happens.

I would like to see the "sign out" button at the top of the page.

I would like to see a webmail where the spamblocker looks for certain subject lines that I have specified and then automatically routes those that match my specifications to my Inbox. This feature would be similar to what the spamblocker does when it searches for messages that match the addresses in my address book, but t would search by subject rather than address.

This would make it much easier to find replies from large companies or schools that don't necessarily indicate the email address of the person who responds to requests for information. Right now, to receive a reply from such a school or organization, first, I have to remember that I SENT a request, then I have to search the SUSPECT EMAIL for the anonymous person's reply and then I have to be able to recognize the reply for what it is. That is extremely aggravating.

If the spamblocker sorted by subject line as well as address line, I could simply cue the respondent to type a subject line in his or her response that matches a subject that I wish to have forwarded to my Inbox.

Wouldn't that be much less hassle?

Hey, I just wanted to comment on the new layout. I am very disappointed that my inbox is more compressed. It's harder to read everything! My old, tired eyes liked the old layout in which the lines seemed to be further apart. I vote for changing it back. I can live with everything else.

KK

Please, please get rid of those totally obtrusive jumping around distracting ads to the right of the email I'm here to read. I'm paying good money to Earthlink, why saddle us with those obnoxious ads? Ugh!

My biggest problem with Web Mail is that the address book you give us is too small. I run a business on my computer, and having an address book that holds only 2500 names is a huge problem for me. Many of my regular clients end up in my suspect email folder, because I can't add them to my address book. Please expand the space available in the address book. If not, I'm moving to another ISP within the month. I can't do business this way.

Dear Sir

I moved to Earthlink from Net Zero. The first thing I noticed with Earthlink, when I start to write an email, is that I have to choose a font style by clicking on (Color & Graphics) or be happy with the default font style you call (Plain.)
It would be so much easier if you would just have a list of font styles with a default button that allows each person to select the font style he or she prefers. Then every time you go to write an email, your preferred font style is already set for you.
I can't tell you the number of times I have typed a good portion of an email, only to remember too late that I am typing in PLAIN FONT and not the font I want. Then I have to make the choice: Do I want to continue with the Plain font style or am I willing to loose everything I've typed, to switch to the font style I want.
This seems like a simple enough request, what do you think?
Thank You, Curt Hamilton

please get rid of the ads. I pay really good money for Earthlink, the webmail should be without the Ads. I would expect it if it were a free service, but you folks are "double-dipping: getting paid by the consumer and paid again by the ad company. Shame on you. Please drop the ads. a

OK, I figured out the Forward thing. If you click on Forward, nothing happens. But if you expand the dropdown and click on a style it works. Not intuitive as I was expecting it to act like a Forward button.

I do not like the ads moving to the right side of the screen and all the animation. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on the email when trying to avoid the animation!! I liked it better when the ads were across the top of the screen rather than the side since it interfers with the taskbar and decreases the size of the mail content to make it longer with shorter lines. The animation is very stressful as some of them actually act like strobe lights and can trigger a headache :-(

Having read some of the posts concerning advertisements I see that I feel like alot of others about
having do deal with them, which is I don't like it. So the simple question is how do I eliminate them?

Ed

The sender and definitely the move to button needs to be wider. The move to button needs to be the same width as the folders file 20 spaces. The move to button is only 14 spaces wide and there is plenty of room to make it 24 spaces.

The subject width is too wide and if the Sender was an additional 10 spaces this would leave plenty of space for the subject area.

What is the chances of having the space widths on all of the columns user adjustable?

When will e-link allow letters to be typed in color,bold,italic forms instead of plain
black? (example: firefox allows choices.)
Thanks.

This is complaints/concern about wht web mail has done to me in the past. Sorry, but you seem to be accessible now and I've been wondereing who to contact..

At some point the messages that i had received and not either deleted or stored were in some fashion stolen/kidnapped. I rediscovered them, read only, at another earthlink site, the mailbox icon (not the whole earthllink icon) on the desktip.

This ocurred, if i remember correctly before I changed from dial-up (AOL) to a cable connection (RCN, here in Boston), but maybe after. I only use webmail (I travel a lot; additionally, from what I've seen, I don't like the basic earthlink email system). More recently a buch of email were simply disappeared, although it is possible that I erroniously hit the master (delete) button. (Style and design wise, is it too close to the first email line's [x} box?).

Most recently I somehow wandered into the myearthlink page, fiddled around with it a bit, and lo and behold it replaced rcn's opening page when I hit the explorer icon that the cable installer assigned as the way to go online. I want it back, but have no idea how to. There doesn't seem to be any way to accomplish this by the user. (As you may know, RCN uses earthlink for some of its software.)

Finally, I can now no longer access, even to read, any of my old kidnapped emails. Hitting the mailbox icon gives me some sort of negative response.

I want things back to normal. Please facilitate, or just have someone do it. But please don't kidnap or lock up (or delete) anything else.

Thanks.

Alan Patterson apatterson@igc.org

Yes, can we PLEASE get rid of the advertisements? I've posted this question numerous times and I can see there are other people out there who would prefer to have them eliminated completely.

Often as I am reading through my mail, then hitting delete, the UI seems to skip some messages. Sometimes they disappear altogether. Then I will logout, log back in and boom, I have 3 or 4 messages randomly reappear. What's up with that, do I need to change a setting somewhere?

Can I please have an option to be returned to the list of emails in the folder when I'm viewing an email and press the delete button? I don't want to suddenly view another email just because it happened to be the next one in line. You've made a lot of changes, but haven't added this feature; it's been around for over ten years in other email applications. All I need is an option to be returned to the list view after viewing an email when I press the delete or spam button.

Also, for those wondering how to opt out of the advertisements, just blacklist ad.doubleclick.net in your hosts file. If the ads were more tasteful, or were the traditional wide banner, blocking all ads from the advertising company would not be needed.

I think alot of work needs to be done on Font types, size selection, bolding or highlighting certain words.

Let me know when the 6.0 version is completed. Will it work on older computers? iMacs and PCs? (I have both) and the new PCs? Why does it say this is an insecure page?

It would be great to be able to insert text or picture in body of outgoing emaill rather than just have attachments. MERRY CHRISTMAS

I need to move a large address/contact file from one computer to a new computer- exporting the contacts seems to drop the groups - this is using earthlink mail, not the web mail. How can I move (or export) the whole contact/address file intact?

I repeatedly tell you to eliminate InkJet... from my Web Mail, Why does it keep coming in?
I .also, want my complete sign in to be remembered.

Nathan Rosen

Its good to know that Webmail is making improvements and I look forward to changes in the future.

rcn webmail