[KevMeister]

I just noticed all the lovely new features that Gmail has brought henceforth. But get this...no IMAP! Can we start a petition or something?!
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/int..._whatsnew.html

[Chatter]

POP3 is incredibly simple to implement; IMAP takes a lot more thought and horsepower on the server side. Also, once IMAP is available, their site becomes a lot less important.

Marc

[ssrjazz]

I think the big hurdle here is how google is storing the email. It's certainly isn't in MBOX formatted text files on their servers. They just throw everything into a big arse database and then give you the ability to create tags for them to categorize the emails.

That's totally different from the 'folder' based idea behind imap. I could see why it would be fairly easy to implement pop3, but be a royal clustermuck to try to do imap with it.

[Tastypeppers]

At first I really liked Gmail and used it a lot. I did the Gmail --> Fastmail --> Chatter dance with my Gmail account. But (this is personal preference stuff now) I got sick of the the (for me) nonintuitive Gmail, and I got sick of checking Gmail and checking Yahoo and checking my regular corporate mail. And and and. My life was made more complicated by Gmail, not simplified.

Now I don't care about Gmail anymore. All I use it for is to receive and store the nightly database backup for my websites.

I think that IMAP functionality might have helped keep me a bit longer, but in the end the thing I valued most about Gmail was its spam-scrubbing capabilities.

So yeah, IMAP would be cool and all that stuff but there are plenty, plenty of other ways to get email. Plus I'm a little suspicious of Google-the-company anyway.

[reverendrhino]

There is a petition out for this, do a search, its posted in one of these threads.

[KevMeister]

At first I really liked Gmail and used it a lot. I did the Gmail --> Fastmail --> Chatter dance with my Gmail account. But (this is personal preference stuff now) I got sick of the the (for me) nonintuitive Gmail, and I got sick of checking Gmail and checking Yahoo and checking my regular corporate mail. And and and. My life was made more complicated by Gmail, not simplified.

Now I don't care about Gmail anymore. All I use it for is to receive and store the nightly database backup for my websites.

I think that IMAP functionality might have helped keep me a bit longer, but in the end the thing I valued most about Gmail was its spam-scrubbing capabilities.

So yeah, IMAP would be cool and all that stuff but there are plenty, plenty of other ways to get email. Plus I'm a little suspicious of Google-the-company anyway.

For the most part I agree with these statements, but still, Fastmail can't be beat as an IMAP go between, until Gmail gets its act together! I just did a purging of my Fastmail account over the past 2 weeks, deleting all my old messages. Boy, did that clear up my MB storage! Before: 15,000 or so e-mails. Now: Just a little over 400 e-mails.

Here's where keeping the $39.95/year deal tested my MB storage capacity. Before the purge, I had 250-500MB, now after the purge, I have 16.8 MB. What a difference!

Here's the interesting thing, when I delete my e-mails off my Treo via Chatter, Fastmail recogonizes the deleted e-mails as a strike through, but they are not deleted. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to manually delete the strike through e-mails AND empty the trash via the Fastmail website, otherwise the strike-through e-mails still count toward your Fastmail megabyte usage.

When I signed up for FastMail on Sept. 20 2005, I opted for the Enhanced 2GB/year for $39.95, mainly as a precautionary measure too see how the system works. In hindsight, the $39.95/year service is great if you get a lot of e-mails and don't have regular access to a computer to delete your Fastmail e-mails.

Now that I plan on purging my FastMail account weekly, I'm going for the Full $19.95 membership/year by the end of this weekend, saving myself about $20. Unless you guys and gals here can convince to keep my Enhanced membership.

Here's the rundown on Fastmail's price plans:
http://www.fastmail.fm/pages/fastmai...ricingtbl.html

###

[webedc]

Here's the interesting thing, when I delete my e-mails off my Treo via Chatter, Fastmail recogonizes the deleted e-mails as a strike through, but they are not deleted. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to manually delete the strike through e-mails AND empty the trash via the Fastmail website, otherwise the strike-through e-mails still count toward your Fastmail megabyte usage.

You can choose Expunge after Delete if you edit your mailbox in Chatter (menu-E), choose the "other" tab, uncheck the "Move deleted messages to" box, and choose the Expunge after Delete box on the bottom of the screen. This way you don't have to go back to Fastmail website to delete them!

[KevMeister]

You can choose Expunge after Delete if you edit your mailbox in Chatter (menu-E), choose the "other" tab, uncheck the "Move deleted messages to" box, and choose the Expunge after Delete box on the bottom of the screen. This way you don't have to go back to Fastmail website to delete them!

Wow! Webedc, you're a lifesaver--and a time saver! I just did what you suggested from the Chatter menu, delted some recent emails from myTreo, checked the Fastmail website to be sure, and voila! I just love this forum. BTW, which version/pricepoint of Fastmail do ya use?

[D0lphin]

I have Gmail forwarded to AIM. AIM is my old netscape account. Things are "pushed" to the treo with no problem what so ever. Chattermail is great. The PHONE gets quirky rarely with chattermail always "on." Nothing to be pissed about because of the positives of chattermail. Probably all the other third party apps trying to connect too.

[aldamon]

I think that IMAP functionality might have helped keep me a bit longer, but in the end the thing I valued most about Gmail was its spam-scrubbing capabilities.

Yeah, GMail is an awesome SPAM filter. The SPAM filter on my 1and1 account is terrible so GMail saves me there.

[webedc]

BTW, which version/pricepoint of Fastmail do ya use?

I've been a Fastmail's Full Member with additional bandwidth and storage credits since 2005. However Fastmail has been experiencing more and more server problems lately. The most recent outage in early September was just insane that left a lot of people out of emails for several days (there are several active threads discussing this). Lately I've been trying the 6-month trial of emailtreo.com (a.k.a. everyone.net) offerred by ChatterEmail. It's been working great.

I still have credits left in Fastmail so at this moment I'm undecided on what to do with it. Probably just let my credits expire. Good luck in your decision with Fastmail.

[jcatan]

They have become unreliable, unpredictable and slow to implement the changes needed to keep up with the competition. I have been without email from them 9 days of the past two months. I know they are trying to improve, but each improvement they implement brings more disasterous and longer outages. There are alternatives.

[spiVeyx]

I like Gmail for it's simple web interface plus it's great SPAM catching abilities. I forward all mail to an IMAP account with my hosting company (Dreamhost) and essentially have my mail stored in two places.

I use Gmail's web interface on the road (usually when traveling internationally) because I REALLY hate the WebMail interface my hosting company provides.