What is wrong with e-mail? Can it be fixed?

Actually I think this is an unfair question. The thing is, there is nothing wrong with e-mail, it is just the way it is being used that is the problem. The bottom-line is that people are the problem! And I have come to the startling conclusion after reading countless blog posts (e.g. It’s Not Email That’s Broken, It’s You, In Box Zero, 7 Simple Ways to Get to Inbox Zero Every Day, Inbox Zero for Life, Zen and the Art of Gmail, Part 2: Labels & Filters, Three Human Interface Hypotheses Update: Email is Efail, It's not email that it the problem it is you and Email Charter and watching to a couple of excellent video-casts (VidBITS: Email Strategies of the TidBITS Staff and No Email Day Google+ Hangout #1 (Feb 2013)).

So, what is this 'people problem'? Well, I believe that the 'people' can be divided in to three groups: the programmers, the email senders, and the email receivers. All of which are guilty of causing the problem, all of which need some retraining, and all which need to rethink the way they use and interact with email. Therefore, what I am saying is that although I still believe that part of my initial reaction and hypothesis about email is still correct (see My hypothesis: e-mail is evil and deserves to die!) that I now also realise that as a sender and receiver of email I have to take some responsibility for the massive failings of the system.

In some later posts I will be expanding why I think people are the problem, and some possible fixes or things that at least we can try… And finally, I will write about what I have done to tackle my email problem (which is currently an ongoing experiment, or should that be battle?).

Meanwhile, I must get back to over-stuffed inbox….

If you have any tips or advice (or useful links) for dealing with a bloated inbox then why not share them below?

2 Comments

March 15, 2013 | 08:16 AM

Posted By: Nick Morris

This challenge idea is a fair point, but it again involves more work (initially) for both parties. Yes, it addresses spam, but sadly that is not the only problem with email...

March 12, 2013 | 11:03 PM

Posted By: Murray Hobbs

The strange thing to me is that an email paradigm has been available for a long time that deals with the problem of most spam or any unwanted email

the method has been incorporated in a number of email systems

it works like this

1. you send an email to me
2. The system that hosts my email sees that you are not a recognised mail sender and automatically emails you back with a request to validate yourself (like with the email you get when you first register to be a member of this site you are on) - that then identifies you as likely being human and not a human likely to sit for hours each day just responding to such requests
3. once you have validated as a legitimate sender to me you email then goes to the next stage of holding whereby i can see the email and then decide that it is or is not spam - my decision then effects the default handling of mail from you in the future

and such systems are already in use

but who does not want your email provider to use such a system?

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