[Design] request for fine controls over new-mail alerts

[Kaitlin Duck Sherwood]

One thing that I presume is very simple to do that can have a big 
effect on how happy people are with their email client has to do with 
the "new mail" alert -- be it a sound, a flashing image, whatever.

Many people have complained of getting distracted by new mail alerts.

I believe that most people only want to hear alerts for messages that 
are likely to be "to-do" messages.  (And if they are in the middle of 
something that they are focusing on whole-brainedly, they might not 
want to get distracted by *any* alerts.)  They usually don't want 
(and get annoyed by!) alerts for spam and mailing list messages.

I like to have a different sound for different categories of message. 
Messages from publishing biz people come in with a whip crack. 
Messages from random friends get a cymbal, though Rich gets "breaking 
glass", Chris gets "moo", and Georges gets "Aaaooogah".  Etc.  That 
way, I can tell what kind of messages have arrived without 
interrupting my work flow.

To do this, the filters need to allow an action that is something 
like "change alert to ..."

Note: I've got Eudora well-trained about sounds, but the flashing 
"new mail" icon on the Mac OS9 menubar still drives me nuts. 
Something like 70% of my messages are spam, which my spam filters 
take care of... but the stupid icon still flashes.  Even when I 
*know* (from hearing) that there are no new non-spam messages, I 
usually switch to Eudora and click somewhere in Eudora just to 
eliminate the distracting little icon.

-- 
Kaitlin Duck Sherwood
Author of the _Overcome Email Overload_ series, http://www.EmailOverload.com