[ale] Making email folders EXACTLY like you want them

[Ron Frazier]

(This message was originally entitled: need some Evolution email magic)

Björn, and group,

Björn replied to the email referenced below and asked me to share my 
email folder strategy.  I decided to share it with the group as well in 
case others are interested.

Most email clients, including Eudora OSE (Open Source Edition) and 
Evolution automatically assume you want to sort your folders 
alphabetically.  Most won't let you change this and move the folders to 
other locations in the list.  I use a special naming technique to trick 
the system in to putting the folders where I want them to be.  Below is 
a representative, but not exhaustive, list of my email folders, and sub 
folders, with comments about why I did things this way.  You can 
customize this general approach to your needs.  Many of these folders, 
particularly mailing lists, are populated by automated filters which run 
on incoming mail.  If you have questions about that, please let me know.

The first 6 folders listed here are ones I consider important, and I 
always want them sorted at the top, regardless of their letter of the 
alphabet.  The 4 zeros in front assure this.  Within the group of 0000 
items, they sort alphabetically.

0000 ALE-Jobs
0000 Employment
0000 Eudora OSE Info
0000 IMPORTANT
0000 Linux - Robots
0000 Linux - Ron

These next few folders always sort below the 0000 items, and above 
everything else I'm going to describe.  Items in parentheses are not 
part of the folder name.  Items within this subsection sort 
alphabetically.  If I had something starting with W, X, Y, or Z, it 
would go below my Vendors area, but so far, not a problem.

AHRC (Atlanta Hobby Robot Club)
ALE (You know what this is.)
Linux (Other Linux / Ubuntu related stuff)
Mailing Lists (Generic folder for messages from many mailing lists which 
don't have their own folder)

Vendors is a folder.  Everything below it in this section is a 
subfolder.  Generally, these are commercial entities, although some may 
be suppliers of free products or services with a vendor type 
relationship.  Note how the Xmarks entry cross references to Lastpass, 
where I actually store messages from them.  Within the Vendors folder, 
subfolders automatically sort alphabetically.

Vendors
   ---Acronis
   ---Amazon
   ---Audible
   ---Best Buy
   ---Evernote
   ---Jungledisk
   ---Lastpass - Xmarks
   ---National Instruments
   ---Pandora
   ---Seagate
   ---Xmarks - See Lastpass

Next begins an archive section where I use folders with letters of the 
alphabet as place holders to put other folders for the messages I want 
to store.  The Z in front of each throws this whole section to the 
bottom of the list.  The z01, z02, etc. actually controls the sort 
order, and the A, B, C, etc. is for humans.  If I had to add a folder 
for Zebra in the upper section, and it sorted wrong, I could add more 
Z's in front of the bottom section.

z01a ---- AAAAAAAA
z02a ---- BBBBBBBB
z03a ---- CCCCCCCC
z04a ---- DDDDDDDD

Here are some example entries under EEEE.  Note that they start with 
z05b, whereas the EEEE header starts with z05a.  This forces all the 
actual topic folders under the EEEE, but, within that group, they sort 
alphabetically.  I could force the sort order underneath by using z05c, 
z05d, z05e, etc.  However, adding new items becomes very tedious that 
way as you have to change all the items below what you're adding.  Note 
how Electronics sorts above all the Energy entries.  Also, note how all 
the Energy entries are categorized and sub categorized, with the main 
general Energy category at the top.

z05a ---- EEEEEEEE
z05b Electronics
z05b Energy
z05b Energy - AEE
z05b Energy - DOE
z05b Energy - Southface

z06a ---- FFFFFFFF
z07a ---- GGGGGGGG

Some more examples.  Note that these topic entries start with z08b to 
match the z08a of the HHHH header.

z08a ---- HHHHHHHH
z08b Health - Dr. Ted Broer
z08b Health - MSN Health
z08b Hobbies
z08b Hobbies - Ham Radio
z08b Hobbies - Machine Work
z08b Hobbies - Robotics

z09a ---- IIIIIIII
z10a ---- JJJJJJJJ
z11a ---- KKKKKKKK
z12a ---- LLLLLLLL
z13a ---- MMMMMMMM
z14a ---- NNNNNNNN
z15a ---- OOOOOOOO
z16a ---- PPPPPPPP
z17a ---- QQQQQQQQ
z18a ---- RRRRRRRR
z19a ---- SSSSSSSS
z20a ---- TTTTTTTT
z21a ---- UUUUUUUU
z22a ---- V V V V V V V V
z23a ---- W W W W W W W W
z24a ---- XXXXXXXX
z25a ---- YYYYYYYY
z26a ---- ZZZZZZZZ

Spam is Unsolicited Commercial Email, which is generally junk.  Bacon is 
email which you've given permission to get, but which is usually of 
minimal value or interest.  I have free subscriptions to several trade 
journals such as Power Engineering Magazine and Energy User News.  
Except, they aren't really FREE.  They don't cost anything, but they 
sell your contact data and you get flooded with BACON email.  I have 
filters to dump these messages, based on the TO address they're coming 
to, into this folder.  If I have reason to think anything important is 
coming from a publisher, like a subscription ending, I'll go look in 
there.  The ZZZZ in front of the folder name forces this to the bottom 
of the list.

zzzz Bacon

When I do get junk mail, like the latest greatest mortgage offer, or a 
way to enlarge or reduce some body part, I manually move it to the Junk 
EVALUATE folder, rather than deleting it.  As I've detailed in other 
posts, I use the control panel on my domain name's email server to give 
a specific forwarding email address to each entity I deal with, and 
never give my actual email address.  So, if I want to give Bob's 
Computer Store my email, it's going to be something like 
bobscomputerinfo@ my domain, etc.  By looking at the TO address (which 
cannot be spoofed) in a message, I can tell where the email came from, 
or at least where the sender got my address, if Bob's sold it.  Every so 
often, I go through the EVALUATE folder and look at the TO field to see 
which addresses are attracting the most spam.

I have other folders, such as the bottom one below, where I put messages 
to those particular addresses.  So, in the example below, if my 
bobscomputerinfo address is attracting lots of spam, that bottom folder 
will eventually get lots of messages in it.  This is a manual process, 
and is very much a when I get around to it activity.  However, over 
time, I may see that this address is attracting, say 10 spams / month.  
Based on that, I can determine if the good stuff I get from Bob's is 
worth putting up with the junk to that address.  Note that spam coming 
to bobscomputerinfo doesn't NECESSARILY mean that Bob betrayed my trust, 
as addresses can sometimes escape in other ways, just by sending and 
receiving mail.  If the good mail is not worth the trouble of the bad, I 
simply delete the forwarding address for bobscomputerinfo from my email 
server control panel and the mail to that address, both good and bad, 
vanishes.  So, in general, I get very little spam.  What spam I do get, 
I can banish to the bit version of a black hole and only lose email 
coming TO that particular address.  Note, if you decided to manually 
investigate junk mail like this, you may wish to disconnect from the net 
when viewing the junk.  Just by opening or previewing the junk, they 
(the bad guys) know you opened it, and will send you more.  Also, that's 
sometimes a vector to send you a virus as soon as you open the email.  I 
would never open any attachments in such emails.

zzzz Junk EVALUATE
zzzzz junk bobscomputerinfo

Well, that's how I organize my email folders.  Hope this is helpful.

Sincerely,

Ron


On 01/24/2011 05:53 PM, Björn Gustafsson wrote:
> Hi Ron,
>
> I'm definitely interested in your folder strategy, if you can
> communicate it via email. :-)
>
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 11:38 AM, Ron Frazier
> <atllinuxenthinfo at c3energy.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Michael,
>>
>> Just thought I'd let you know, I'm in the process of switching to Eudora
>> Open Source Edition, so I can have all the advanced email filters I've
>>      
<snip>
>> 1.0, so it's a work in progress.  I have some pretty advanced filtering
>> systems set up, as well as what I feel is a unique folder strategy.
>> I'll share this with the group if people are interested, although I'm
>> not sure it can be done by email.

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT c3energy.com