New Beta Webmail

[kavan]

Hello Sonic, I have been a Sonic customer since was a kid and I have been very pleased with your services. However,you only offer dialup service in my area, and the new webmail platform loads prohibitively slow on dialup. Can you please leave an old webmail platform for us dialup users? If not, I will be forced to switch to another company. Thanks, Milo Mitchel

We did do some dial up testing using v.90 and an old windows XP machine (pentium m 2 ghz) with Internet Explorer 8 and though some things were slower (particularly loading messages with embedded images) it tested as fast or only slightly slower than Squirrel mail. If you can give us more information about your environment we can try to get some more testing done under those conditions.

[cmcheese]

Dear Sonic.....
At my place of employment, we're trying to understand this new system...we're having a difficult time! Some people are technically challenged and don't adapt to change as easily as other do.

We should be able to use the old system if we find the new system difficult to work with.

Why are you complicating a good thing? I used to like Sonic better than AOL...now I've changed my mind...

[milom]

Thanks for your help and advice, I appreciate your prompt and helpful response. I think I can make this new email work for me.

[smf7]

I very much like the new e-mail application, and am now using it exclusively. (I never could get Outlook to work the way I'd like it to.) Previous applications had many problems. I can now download attachments with no problems, and contents of the messages themselves display properly. I do have some suggestions for improvement, however, mostly the addition of options available in earlier versions. I do not know how difficult any of these would be to implement, so I may be wishing for the moon in a basket.

It would be nice if the enhancements available here (italics, boldface, etc.) were available for regular e-mail. Also, previous versions of the mail facility, and I'm thinking specifically of nutsmail, had many options one could use for the text, such as different fonts, different colors, and so on.

I would also appreciate knowing that a web address or link that I have put into my message actually made it there. Again, previous versions would underline and change the font color to show the link had been pasted in.

The help facility isn't very helpful. I'd like more information there. For example, I'd like to modify my signature block, but cannot find any useful information on how to do so, and making any changes is not intuitive.

It would also be helpful if, when replying to a message, the cursor would be positioned at the top of the message and a blank line or lines inserted. I have to do the positioning myself, and while that's OK, it does seem somewhat primitive. I would also like it if the signature block for the reply would be inserted below the new message rather than at the very bottom of the message, after everything else. Again, I can live with it, but it does seem primitive.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

[virtualmike]

Check Settings > Preferences > Composing Messages.

There are several settings there relevant to your request.

[Guest]

It would be nice if the enhancements available here (italics, boldface, etc.) were available for regular e-mail. Also, previous versions of the mail facility, and I'm thinking specifically of nutsmail, had many options one could use for the text, such as different fonts, different colors, and so on.

Regular e-mail would be in plain text. What you are suggesting is to use HTML for e-mail. That's one of those things that some people like, but in my opinion belongs on the web and not in e-mail. Unless of course you absolutely know for sure that the person on the receiving end doesn't mind. Spammers like to use HTML to hide threats and mainly for that reason in SpamAssassin I've raised the "HTML_MESSAGE" score to 5 in order to block all incoming HTML e-mail. For companies I do business with that insist on wasting bandwidth with HTML because they think it looks cool, I've whitelist their addresses. The net result is, zero spam in my Inbox.

It would also be helpful if, when replying to a message, the cursor would be positioned at the top of the message and a blank line or lines inserted.

There's a good reason why the cursor isn't placed at the top of a reply by default and that's to discourage the bad practice of top-posting.

I would also like it if the signature block for the reply would be inserted below the new message rather than at the very bottom of the message, after everything else.

The signature is not suppose to be part of the message body. It's suppose to be at the bottom so that it can be automatically stripped for the reply.

Actually, neither the cursor placement or signature is an issue if the person composing trims all unnecessary quotes and properly places their response underneath each relevant quote block.

Again, I can live with it, but it does seem primitive.

Nothing primitive about doing things properly. :)

[as116]

I am going to really miss the old Webmail. I am having trouble liking the new system. Where is the spell checker? I don't like that you can't see the entire email message on one page. I miss the option to download photos that appear with the email. I still haven't figured out how to attach a file? I know there are good reasons for the new changes, but I really don't like the new format that is taking over all the old formats. I wasn't fond of the new sonic a few years ago and that why I still use the old format. I love Sonic for it's spam filtering and lack of advertising, but the new formats seem very un-user friendly.

[thulsa_doom]

I am going to really miss the old Webmail. I am having trouble liking the new system. Where is the spell checker?

Settings->Preferences->Composing Messages has an option to check spelling before sending. Many browsers have built-in spellcheck systems, so having this on by default would be redundant for many users.

I don't like that you can't see the entire email message on one page.

Double-clicking an email in the message list will cause it to take over the screen (aside from the navigation and folder bars).

I miss the option to download photos that appear with the email.

For an image that is actually attached in an email, a link should appear on the right-hand side of the message with the name of the file. Clicking it will give a full-screen view of the image along with its file name, size, and a download link. In my browser this opened in a separate tab, though in some browsers it may open a new window.

For both attached and linked-to images you can right-click an image and use the context menu to save the image.

I still haven't figured out how to attach a file?

When composing a message there is a button labeled "attach a file" on the right as well as an icon with a paperclip and a plus-sign labeled "Attach." These should prompt you to select a file to attach, then click "upload" to get the file to the server.

You can also drag files from your desktop to the area labeled "drop files here."

[thulsa_doom]

It would be nice if the enhancements available here (italics, boldface, etc.) were available for regular e-mail. Also, previous versions of the mail facility, and I'm thinking specifically of nutsmail, had many options one could use for the text, such as different fonts, different colors, and so on.

I would also appreciate knowing that a web address or link that I have put into my message actually made it there. Again, previous versions would underline and change the font color to show the link had been pasted in.

As Mike mentioned, you can turn this on in Settings->Preferences->Composing Messages. Specifically it's the Compose HTML messages menu, which I recommend setting to "always" so you get consistent behavior. When typing a URL, the HTML composition screen won't automatically assume you're trying to place a link, but you can use the link button (it looks like a two chain links) to explicitly turn a section of text into a link.

The help facility isn't very helpful. I'd like more information there. For example, I'd like to modify my signature block, but cannot find any useful information on how to do so, and making any changes is not intuitive.

We're actively making use of threads like these to identify exactly what needs to be in the documentation. Some features that we felt were self-explanatory turned out not to be.

It would also be helpful if, when replying to a message, the cursor would be positioned at the top of the message and a blank line or lines inserted. I have to do the positioning myself, and while that's OK, it does seem somewhat primitive. I would also like it if the signature block for the reply would be inserted below the new message rather than at the very bottom of the message, after everything else. Again, I can live with it, but it does seem primitive.

You can set the new webmail client to reply above the quote in that same Settings->Preferences->Composing Messages section, with the "when replying" menu. It's set to put the quotes at the top of replies for reasons that when explained nearly always result in the lowest form of Internet flame war: grammar and etiquette disputes.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Thanks for the feedback!

[enmiller]

I tried out the new interface yesterday. I could not figure out how to delete more than one email at a time. I really hope this gets fixed or someone can explain how. Some emails (like from living social) I just want to delete after reading the subject line. I don't want to go through them all one by one.

Do you have to use the threads option? I don't like that. I use it at my job and am constantly missing emails.

I don't like that the email shows below in a very small screen that I then have to scroll through.

Please remember that some of your customers are not as proficient at computer use as others. Right now your email is easy to navigate. Please keep it that way.