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Moving from Hey to Fastmail

blog.francocorrea.com

51–60 of 64 posts

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#51
post #4

I love how a bunch of the "headline features" of Hey are effectively replicated with taking the time to make a few rules in another platform. I tried Hey at the peak of it's pre-release hype, but just like Basecamp, it's just a really mediocre experience in a sea of options.

I tried briefly to replicate some of Hey's features with gmail but with limited success. I think the key workflows are:

1. Unknown senders go to a bucket for categorization

2. Easily categorize which senders are "important"/"unimportant"/"ignore,spam"

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#52
post #48
post #27

I don’t get Hey. I feel like it does too much magic with my inbox. Much like social media, I don’t want some algorithm to selectively decide what messages I see and what I don’t. I want to be able to see All messages, in a chronological order. Having concert tickets not arrive in my inbox that I need because some magic is happening due to the sender being a first time sender to me is just frustrating.

Yeah, I can relate. The ephemeral and mercurial character of those things really bugs me. I stopped using Facebook because it's useless - once I scrolled past something I could never find it again. Infuriating. On a funny note, I seem to recall a Dilbert strip with a spam filter that became sentient and started controlling the company by controlling the flow of email but I'm unable to find it at the moment ;)

https://dilbert.com/strip/2003-07-12

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#53
post #48
post #27

I don’t get Hey. I feel like it does too much magic with my inbox. Much like social media, I don’t want some algorithm to selectively decide what messages I see and what I don’t. I want to be able to see All messages, in a chronological order. Having concert tickets not arrive in my inbox that I need because some magic is happening due to the sender being a first time sender to me is just frustrating.

Yeah, I can relate. The ephemeral and mercurial character of those things really bugs me. I stopped using Facebook because it's useless - once I scrolled past something I could never find it again. Infuriating. On a funny note, I seem to recall a Dilbert strip with a spam filter that became sentient and started controlling the company by controlling the flow of email but I'm unable to find it at the moment ;)

[deleted]

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I hadn't heard that. I'll be surprised if it sways my opinion but will listen regardless.

Wow, that was way worse than I feared. Had to shut it off after 20 minutes. I'm diametrically opposed to their worldview.

That's disappointing. Haven't listened yet, but can you sum up what their (I assume Jason Fried's) worldview is?

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I hadn't heard that. I'll be surprised if it sways my opinion but will listen regardless.

Wow, that was way worse than I feared. Had to shut it off after 20 minutes. I'm diametrically opposed to their worldview.

you're free to have another worldview; it doesn't hurt listening to people who have a different worldview though, especially when it's a viewpoint relevant to the topic (i.e. the founder of basecamp speaking on his point of view).

I had a distinct impression from what you wrote that you wish you didn't waste your time listening to his point of view though, which I find a bit sad if true, but you're free to have your worldview after all.

I really think that the speed at which some people reach judgement and conclusions is astonishing. It's all so easy; the world is split into two groups "us" and "them", right? the right thinkers and the wrong thinkers.

Listen, think, don't jump to conclusions, let things simmer, think again, object to concrete things, ask questions, express your point of view, hold your opinions. I can't make all of that in 20m; lucky you if you have that skill.

One of the most interesting parts of the interview (honestly I don't remember if it's before or after your 20m mark), was when Jason mentioned that there were several employees who felt attacked for not speaking up on some political topics at work; "consent by silence", while people just didn't chime in because they just didn't feel like talking about that stuff, yet suddenly they were treated as if they were racists; or others who felt attacked because they didn't use the right words when discussing about these topics. The whole thing easily backfires: imagine all you want is to promote inclusion and non-toxic environment and you end up fuelling the very same problems from the other side.

I'm not sure I can reach you and actually have a conversation about that; I have the feeling you'll dismiss me and just because you think you already know what I mean and what I stand for; perhaps just labeled me like "them", whatever that means.

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that was way worse than I feared. Had to shut it off after 20 minutes. I'm diametrically opposed to their worldview.

you're free to have another worldview; it doesn't hurt listening to people who have a different worldview though, especially when it's a viewpoint relevant to the topic (i.e. the founder of basecamp speaking on his point of view). I had a distinct impression from what you wrote that you wish you didn't waste your time listening to his point of view though, which I find a bit sad if true, but you're free to have your…

Jason could have stepped up and actually be a leader to ensure that political discussions don't lead to a toxic work environment. Instead he centered himself, had a knee-jerk reaction to a point of view that really didn't have anything to do with him personally, and then decided to lob a missile at his own company. That's not courage, that's cowardice.

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#57
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you're free to have another worldview; it doesn't hurt listening to people who have a different worldview though, especially when it's a viewpoint relevant to the topic (i.e. the founder of basecamp speaking on his point of view). I had a distinct impression from what you wrote that you wish you didn't waste your time listening to his point of view though, which I find a bit sad if true, but you're free to have your…

Jason could have stepped up and actually be a leader to ensure that political discussions don't lead to a toxic work environment. Instead he centered himself , had a knee-jerk reaction to a point of view that really didn't have anything to do with him personally, and then decided to lob a missile at his own company. That's not courage, that's cowardice.

I'm pretty sure there are many ways to deal with such a situation and many ways to get it wrong. I'm not even arguing that what he did was right; given the amount of grief basecamp is getting, it's clearly possible to imagine a world where Jason had handled it better.

I don't understand though what "being a leader" means here, and why you're calling him a coward for trying out something, even if that something was wrong. What should a leader do if not try out things? Courage doesn't mean "do the right thing"; it just means don't be afraid. One can be a courageous asshole and a coward saint.

That said, you clearly have some ideas one how should one handle such a situation, and how to ensure political discussion don't lead to a toxic environment? Clearly justing saying "don't proselytise your political topics at work" is off the table for some reason.

What is exactly at stakes here? Is it about freedom of bring one's whole self at work? Is it about the urgency of solving the real and pressing problem of american society that requires everybody's attention everywhre? Is it a knee jerk reaction to the toxicity of the former presidential mandate that left a deep scar in american society? What are we talking about exactly here? Why can't I just feel free to mind my own business and do my javascript and whatnot at work and talk about politics at the pub?

I'm really curious, honest.

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#58
For everyone who likes HEY’s workflow and wants to use it with Fastmail, Big Mail just launched this week and looks promising. I haven’t tried it yet (and no connection), but planning to give that combination a whirl when I have some time. Very curious if anyone else already has.

https://getbigmail.com/

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#59

Was looking for a Gmail alternative, several months ago, and had to pick between these two. I went with Fastmail and am very happy. Tons of aliases that are easy to use, the UX is actually _much better_ than Gmail.

About the only thing I dislike about Fastmail is there's no equivalent to gmail's "unread-first" view. IE show unread messages first, in reverse-chronological order, then all read messages, in reverse-chronological order.

Two tabs, one with the unread filter selected?

Not exactly the same, but close enough for my use. I usually run 2-3 tabs 1.inbox, 2.lists, 3.someothercriteria

Re: Moving from Hey to Fastmail

#60
post #34

Hey is an awesome email client on a terrible email server and Fastmail is an awesome server with a terrible client. I only wish there was a standard protocol we could use to mix and match!

I know it's pretty subjective, but I'd personally rate Fastmail's UI as one of the best I've used. The only real issue I have with it is that uncached searches could be faster.

Same - Fastmail's web UI is my primary MUA, with my phone being the secondary.
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