
What we’ve learned listening to 6,000+ people complaining about email - mathouc
http://blog.frontapp.com/what-6000-tweets-taught-us-about-broken-email/
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normloman
Their survay conflates "email is broken (email has systemic problems)" with
"my email is broken (my email doesn't work)." That's the kind of shitty
results you get when you analyze any tweet with the words "email" and "broken"
in them.

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jonifico
These reasons have nothing to do with email itself, but just the people that
use it. In this order of ideas, we could perfectly say that oral communication
is broken, people just don't talk to me enough, or they talk to me all the
time! Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling. However, email can be a pain in the
buttcrack when it doesn't go down well, which happens strangely often
sometimes, so it is kinda broken.

~~~
furyofantares
> These reasons have nothing to do with email itself, but just the people that
> use it.

You don't think the technology can be changed to make it more likely for a
humans to use it in a way that doesn't frustrate themselves and others?

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gnu8
"Email is broken because my startup doesn't own it."

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stefanix
I love email. It works well between people who know how to write email. The
main problem is it takes a lot of experience to be good at it. Many people
also don't recognize it as something you have to learn.

That being said good filtering, threading, and end-to-end encryption in one
reader is still illusive for most of us.

~~~
mrweasel
We're in a two story office and we often have colleagues coming down and the
first thing they says is: "I just sent you an email".... Okay, so why did you
come down?

Email doesn't fit the way a large number of people think, but I don't think
it's broken. Neither Excel nor Windows is inherently broken just because I
have issues using it, I just need the proper training.

Some people have 10GB of email in their inbox, because then: "they know where
it is". Some mix work and private emails, because then they don't need two
email account, which is just awesome when they chance jobs. Then there's the
people who just have plain bad communication skills and can't formulate a
clear and readable email. Neither of these things point to email being broken
and I have yet to see a half decent alternative.

I love email too, but way to many people aren't correctly educated in using
it.

~~~
zokier
> We're in a two story office and we often have colleagues coming down and the
> first thing they says is: "I just sent you an email".... Okay, so why did
> you come down?

I don't really see what is the problem with that sort of pattern?

~~~
mrweasel
It can certainly be justified, but in most cases it can be solved via email at
a time convenient for the recipient.

I think it extremely disrespectful to send a email and two minutes later be
standing at my desk ask: "Did you see my email?" No, of cause I didn't see
your email, I'm working.

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drfritznunkie
As anyone who's done any level of enterprise support knows is that people hate
email, but absolutely freak out when there is the smallest problem with it.
For awhile I had my staff attempt to work in a lesson on email during tech
orientation for new employees, the problem is that everyone thinks they know
how email works, so they'd just tune out. Try explaining the concept that
successfully "sending" an email only means that the local server has agreed to
accept it, it doesn't mean that the recipient received it and see how far you
get. Trying to fix email is a lot more complicated than some fancy pants
Framework-Of-The-Moment application purporting to declutter your inbox, it
actually is going to involve somehow getting people to understand, at a basic
level, how their email gets delivered.

I think the lowest hanging fruit is simply making it easier for the hoi polloi
to connect to their accounts easily. NO ONE does a good job with this, not
Apple, not Google, not Thunderbird, not Outlook, NO ONE. I've done more
freelance work (at absurd rates) simply fixing email client setups than
anything else and just making sure that all my client's devices are setup the
same. This should be trivial, but it's not.

And don't get me started on all the fantastically crappy email providers out
there. I'm looking at you Godaddy, your craptastic email service has wasted
more of my time in the past month than I care to think about.

Go Fastmail!

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ape4
Email's best attribute is that its universal. But that's also a problem: spam,
semi-spam, corporate mail to the entire company etc.

I find the existing UIs still manage quoting and threads very poorly. I'd like
see improvements in this area. I think a thread markup language might be the
answer. Take the exact display of threads away from the client and only mail
intent.

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rokhayakebe
Ideally I would only use my email for outbound, and different apps with
different purposes for interacting with inbound.

A phone call should go to my email first, then get routed to my current voice
app.

A short message should go to my email, then routed to my Viber/SMS/Whatsapp.

An email from my team with an action item, should get routed to my to-do app.

A picture message should get routed to my gallery.

etc...

Clicking on notifications should open the right app, or at least give me
options.

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josu
The tweet they quote is priceless:

>“Reminder: today is an even-numbered day, so my work email is broken.”

@kevincarey1

Link to the actual tweet:
[https://twitter.com/kevincarey1/status/520654339703336962](https://twitter.com/kevincarey1/status/520654339703336962)

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Furzel
14% complains because they are not receiving enough email ... They probably
don't live on the same planet ...

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onion2k
That's not really what the article says. The point they're making is that if
you expect to receive a lot and then you don't then you think your email
account isn't working correctly.

“I haven’t gotten an email in seven minutes, making me immediately suspicious
my email is broken.”

That's actually a complaint that the user is getting too much email (or
possibly the right amount); it's just phrased in a way that makes it look like
it's the opposite.

~~~
mike-cardwell
More likely they're happy about the amount of email they're getting and are
"showing off" that they get a lot.

