I just read Bill’s post about Gmail. I’ve been using Gmail from almost the start and it bugs me. I don’t know why I still use it. Maybe I’m just too lazy/ busy to set up Eudora again. My ever faithful Eudora, which I had used since I was a Net newbie in 1996.

So, what bugs me about Gmail, you may wonder. Gmail is the e-mail-ware for packrats. If you tend to keep everything, Gmail is for you. If, like me, you are trying to resist clutter and become organized, Gmail is annoying. Deleting anything at Gmail takes more clicks than getting rid of spam.

To mark an e-mail as spam, there is one click right there in front of you, easily visible, with its own nice, tidy button. However, to trash an e-mail (which is not spam but unwanted nonetheless), you have to go to the drag down menu and hover your cursor over the delete section and then click it. Why? Why make deleting e-mail more complicated than chucking spam? Why? Why? Why! It really bugs me. It doesn’t help that I have closing in on 2000 e-mails to read, most of which I would have deleted right away if it weren’t for the layout of Gmail and my own slight packrat tendencies.

Eventually I will hopelessly mire in unread, not especially wanted e-mail and just move to another e-mail account. Not likely a Gmail one. All those unread e-mails will just become abandoned, sitting on the server, wishing for… whatever abandoned e-mails wish for. How would I know?