Fastmail Labels Beta • Hacker News Board

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#21

Post by huhtenberg » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 2:45 PM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #7

So it looks like labels are like “multi-folders”, and unlike gmail, there is no mix of labels and folders. It’s either or.

Folders can be implemented by having a set of labels of which only one can be assigned to any given message. Then use folder names/paths as these labels and, voila, you got folders.

So perhaps it's something that is coming...

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#22

Post by snazz » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

I would imagine that they have far less email volume to train any kind of spam-classifying AI on, as well as a smaller amount of (human) resources to spend on advanced spam classification. Google has a huge leg up in this particular aspect.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#23

Post by meitham » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

Indeed. I went through the efforts of creating their recommended “learn safe” and “learn spam” folders, but this didn’t help. There doesn’t seem to be a way to reset their spam dataset.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#24

Post by paulmendoza » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

How many users does fastmail have?

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#25

Post by karlshea » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

I trained the “personal” filter myself using their instructions years ago when I first started using them and it’s been pretty solid since.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#26

Post by ocdtrekkie » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 3:00 PM UTC

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

Been on FastMail since 2016 and I barely receive any spam to begin with. It took me years to hit the 200 spam emails to activate the personalized filter, which brought my false positive rate to zero.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#27

Post by ocdtrekkie » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 3:02 PM UTC

snazz wrote: post #22

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

I would imagine that they have far less email volume to train any kind of spam-classifying AI on, as well as a smaller amount of (human) resources to spend on advanced spam classification. Google has a huge leg up in this particular aspect.

Another big aspect is FastMail can't use non-spam emails for training data. And users can opt out of having even their spam emails used for classification. FastMail doesn't co-opt people's data for their own use so they rely entirely on voluntary sharing.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#28

Post by rckclmbr » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

erdaniels wrote: post #19

Might as well put it here since Fastmail doesn’t come up often. Does anyone find Fastmail’s spam detection to be pretty mediocre? I usually get a few obviously spam emails a week in my inbox. The volume is low so I don’t mind it but that’s really the one thing I miss from Gmail.

ive been using fastmail for several years and this hasnt been an issue for me.

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#29

Post by nnutter » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

If you have a spouse and/or kids, and you want them to use FastMail for the same reason you do, consider putting pressure on FastMail to offer a (reasonable) family plan. I’ve been a happy customer for a decade but they’ve raised their prices (which would affect new accounts) and do not offer a family plan so this year be my last year with them.

Edit: typo

Re: Fastmail Labels Beta

#30

Post by jeltz » Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 3:13 PM UTC

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #16

When I transitioned from Gmail to FastMail, I had to get used to using folders again instead of labels. While it was painful, I am glad I am no longer using labels, and I have no intention to start using them again. I vastly prefer being able to rely on the basic email client functionality in any given mail app, and using goofy nonstandard parts like snooze and labels makes that difficult. I appreciate that with JMAP…

Is there any reason for why IMAP keywords cannot be used for labels by e.g. having some prefix for the keyword which indicates that it should be interpreted as a label? Client support is of course needed but to me it seems like the IMAP protocol already supports labels. Maybe IMAP lacks the ability to enumerate all labels?