Ed Mullen wrote:
Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
Ed Mullen wrote:
I see little point in saving and re-using settings from one email
account and assuming they should be applicable to a new one. I have
several accounts and they (in most cases) use unique SMTP and IMAP
(or POP) server settings. It would be pointless, or nearly
impossible, to take settings from one of several accounts and
accurately apply them to a new one. If the info were pre-filled I'd
just have to over-write them anyway.
Unless I'm missing something in the point of this thread.
Here are a couple of scenarios where it makes sense:
• For most ordinary users who have one ISP and several accounts, the
SMTP settings will be the same, so the best strategy is just to point a
new account to the existing SMTP server, which is set as default.
How likely is that?
In my experience, most users have only one ISP. So if they have several
accounts, which is the scenario we're discussing, we're already there.
• For users with several accounts within the same domain (e.g., someone
like me with their own domain), the POP settings will be the same,
except username and password.
How likely is that?
Pretty likely, I'd say. Maybe we travel in different circles, but I know
lots of people with their own domains, and lots of people with two or
more throwaway accounts (yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc.).
If I were designing the interface, I'd offer the user these options:
a) prepopulate with settings from an existing account (user selectable)
and modify them;
b) start from scratch.
Then depending on which option makes sense, the user could make the best
use of his time.
That makes some sense but, still, how likely is that? And how much of
an intrusion would it be for those (as I described) who aren't just doing:
bob@mydomain
fred@mydomain
ralph@mydomain
and instead have an initial account of
bob@mydomain
and want to set up
marlo@someotherdomain
peoria@anothertotallyotherdomain
etc.?
That's why I offered the second option, "start from scratch," which is
what we have anyway.
If you keep dumbing down the UI no one wins.
Users do need to actually know something about what they are doing.
Yes. But nobody's talking about dumbing it down. We're just talking
about prepopulating some settings when it would be a time-saving
convenience, and not when it wouldn't. What do you have against convenience?
--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
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