[kmail2] [Bug 387931] KMail 5.7.0 is missing the show message structure option

[Ralph Moenchmeyer]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=387931

Ralph Moenchmeyer <rm at anracon.de> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |rm at anracon.de

--- Comment #23 from Ralph Moenchmeyer <rm at anracon.de> ---
Interesting discussion and opinion exchange. So, I dare to add a comment from
an experienced end user's perspective. 

I have used KDE/Kmail for over 12 years now. I have used it as a part of my
daily professional Linux/KDE/Kontact working environment - with accounts on
many different Mail- and groupware servers. So, as an end user have I followed
all the ups and downs of this application. Parts of my family use it, too. And
to make it clear from the beginning: I do respect respect the developers'
effort. Very much so. I am 60 years old and I have worked in IT for over 30
years - as a developer, as an application designer, as project leader, as a
consultant. In agile environments - and with maintainers.   

As an interested end user with respect to Kmail I can only express my deepest
dislike of attitudes as:  

"So if I think that it's better to reduce menu or hide not useful feature for
enduser it's my choice." 

No, dear maintainer, it is NOT! A maintainer has to work in the interest of
both the developers AND the end users. 

Deciding what is useful for an end user or not is, however, a difficult process
- which, of course, should involve the end user. Certainly, it is not something
which can be decided upon in a nice developer chat, only. I do not assume that
this was the case here, but I stress this point to make clear that it is not
just simply "your" choice. 

Changing or even removing elementary features should be the result of a careful
analysis. It would have been helpful to see how the maintainer came to his
conclusions and on what basis the end users opinion was taken into account.   

I, myself, have worked in the interest of end users in some SW projects. And
you know what? The most annoying thing for an end user is: 

Changes and changes and changes with an unclear or dubious motivation - and
without even a minimum end user survey. (In the case of Kmail besides technical
problems and not properly working features - as the search for mails with
AND/OR conditions in Kmail for years.)

But even more annoying is the removal of features. And I may tell you - even if
some developers and maintainers may not believe it: To have a look at the
structure of an email has become something elementary for security aware end
users.    

An important thing for the success of an application is a balance of keeping up
things users got used to and improvements/extensions. One key experience in
application design is: This balance between conservative maintenance and
innovation is a delicate one for customers. And one rule, I painfully had to
learn myself, is: You do not simply remove options users were used to for years
without proper replacement!    

In addition: CLEANING UP MENUS may be a great thing to do if it follows a
comprehensible logic. REMOVING FEATURES without a replacement certainly IS NOT!
You should note that you are talking about two very different things. 

As an end user I vote for a kind of "advanced options" menu. 

That is a place where most users would look for a replacement of options that
suddenly have disappeared. 

A plugin, instead, makes life for end users more complicated. You have to know
about plugins and their handling. You have to activate them and maybe configure
them. In my opinion not convincing for elementary options as displaying the
mail structure.

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