I completely agree with Peter B. This would be a wonderful feature and
I don't think it would be very complicated from a software point of
view. There are several things that you might want to hold on to, just
in case you need them, but after a certain point they become useless
-- Things like online coupons, friends' emergency contact information
when they're traveling abroad, Christmas gift lists and the like.
Right now, I keep those things, they clutter up my inbox and then I
end up having to read them all over again a month later to figure out
why I was keeping it and if I should just delete it.
I'm NOT interested in being able to set expiration dates for items I
send to other people. In fact, I'm very much opposed to that idea on
principle for reasons I won't get into here. I'm not trying to control
someone else's experience, just mine. That's why I don't think this
would be all that complicated -- because it would only take place
within the world of gmail.
On Dec 16 2008, 5:11 pm, Peter B wrote:
> Hi
>
> I understand the labelling option but what a work-up! Email
> management should all be about simplicity. I'm suggesting a 'one mouse
> click' approach to identfying an email for deletion at a laterdate.
> Nothing more.
>
> On Dec 15, 5:35 pm, Older Bud Weiser wrote:
>
> > What you can do is apply labels such as "Expires-2009/1/1"
> > "Expires-2009/2/1". I used the samedatesyntax for Gmail's BEFORE:and
> > AFTER: search operators, but that's not the point. (But it was a hint
> > about how to exclude or include messages in a search according to
> > theirdate.)
>
> > There's no need for Gmail to add a feature if this requires manual
> > intervention on your part anyway to flag messages withexpiration
> > dates. Except for automatic purging, how is some annotation for the
> >expirationbetter than a label? The label approach gives you a chance
> > to review messages before deleting them.
>
> > A more comprehensive solution would have some kind of EXPIRES header
> > created by the sender. Messages calling for a response with a deadline
> > have obviousexpirationdates. Email clients might then be able to
> > automatically purge expired messages (move them to the Trash). Just as
> > soon as this becomes standard, i.e., included in a new version of
> > SMTP, Gmail should get on top of it. At present, there is no such
> > standard, and all an email client is required to do for an extended
> > header such as "X-Expires:" is parse the syntax. Any and every
> > behavior in response to seeing such a header is permitted, including
> > but not limited to ignoring it or handling the message as just
> > described.
>
> > In the meantime, until it's standard or there is at least an industry
> > consortium that specifies such email extensions, Gmail should not do
> > anything about them.
>
> > On Dec 14, 1:44 pm, Peter B wrote:
>
> > > Hi Guys
>
> > > Despite the huge amount of space available now to save emails, many of
> > > us only want a mailbox with sufficient size to be effective and
> > > managable. Often, I receive emails that I need to keep for a period of
> > > time, and then they are no longer needed. At the moment, I try to go
> > > back over past emails anddeletethose no longer required, or which
> > > just fill up my mailbox. This can be a time-consuming and labourious
> > > task.
>
> > > Is there a process or setting in place whereby I can append a 'delete
> > > at'dateor period to an email, so it automatically deletes (ater a
> > > prompt perhaps) at thatdate? This would significantly help email