[Dovecot] Quota handling - opportunity for new Feature?

[Charles Marcus]

>>> Your taking control of my email and not delivering it?

>> That is not what I said - it is delivered - the system admin simply
>> prevents the end user from seeing it unless/until they rectify their
>> over-quota condition.

> Unlikely the user will see the difference in deliver and received.

Sure they will - since if one is delivered but the user is over-quota, 
they *will* get a message/notification that the server received their 
message (even telling them the subject *and* *who* *it* *is* *from* - 
why on earth would they bother telling the sender they haven't received it?

And if you come back and say - 'Hey, users are stoopid' - well, then 
allow me to retort - if they are *that* stupid, then they should be 
fired - pure and simple.

The fact is, if this were implemented, they would be much *less* likely 
to bother you, because they would have a status message in their Inbox 
telling them everything - *including* *how* *to* *fix* *it* *with* 
*your* *own* *custom* *instructions* - whereas, currently, what 
notification they get depends on the client.

> I am envisioning a situation like this "Sales Droid: sold send me
> that quote", "techdata rep: sending, hear back from you soon",
> <server: receipt received && receipt delivered>, mail sent to 'B'
> folder. At that moment I am getting called on where the mail is and I
> get to watch an episode of Sales Droid: CSI.

No, you wouldn't - because the Sales Droid would have a notification in 
their Inbox that the message had been received, *but* wouldn't be 
delivered to their Inbox until they resolved their over-quota situation.

If they call me (as the sys admin), and I ask them the standard 
questions - did you get a notice in your Inbox about receiving the 
message but being over quota? yes? Did you deal with the over quota 
problem? no? well, what the hell are you calling me for then - deal with 
the problem!

Now, obviously, this would all have to be configurable (I'm guessing 
this would all live in the Quota Plugin - or maybe it would be an 
alternate Quota plugin) - off by default, etc...

>>> In my experience this would cause both a potential backlash and a
>>> people resending mail.

Not at all - because the recipient *will* *know* they received the 
message, including the subject, the size, attachments, and who it is from.

>> I don't see how that would be a problem... the user will see *something*
>> in their Inbox, and unless they are a *total* moron, they will actually
>> *read* the message that is generated - especially since it will have a
>> subject yelling at them in all caps that they are over quota.

> If SalesDroid is on the phone with someone and wants a document and
> doesn't get the document, but the sender gets receipt for the document
> temperatures rise,

How exactly is my proposed method for dealing with the over quota 
situation *worse* than what it is currently??

> then the SalesDroid heads to gmail and emails themselves a message
> 'test message to my crappy mail server' and he gets it (because its
> small and fits under the radar temperatures rise further and the
> request to 'send it again' or what not occurs and the 'B' folder
> starts getting packed.

Same question...

Again this can all be dealt with very simply, by the notification 
message. It can tell them precisely what wasn't delivered, *and* *why* - 
ie, because it is a large message and would put them over quota - 
complete with your custom instructions on how to fix the problem and get 
their message immediately.

>> I'm guessing that dovecot could over-ride the Quota limit to inject
>> small system generated messages like over-quota - so, forget about the
>> folder 'a'...

> Ummm, it can override the quota if its not a filesystem quota.

Ok, so this would only work under certain conditions. Fine... lots of 
things work like that... you can only use maildir++ quotas with maildir 
- fine...

>> How about every time a message comes in while the user is over-quota,

> I would assume people would go spastic about the INBOX spam,

Ridiculous... don't punish me for your poor training/support or poor 
hiring criteria.

If you really do have such morons (and/or poor training/support) that 
they cannot learn to trust that if they get a message in their Inbox 
saying they won't get any new mail delivered until they deal with their 
quota problem - and then try to filter this system notice, rather than 
deal with the over quota problem - well, then you have a much worse 
problems than stupid users - you have an 'incompetent admin' problem.

> not to mention quickly adding these messages to a filter even.

Oh, please - that is ridiculous. If they are saavy enough to create a 
filter to filter them out, they are saavy enough to understand the 
message *and* *deal* *with* *the* *problem*.

> You really need to delete the previous messages I think unless this
> is a daily or less infrequent thing I think.

A very good idea, thanks - this message - or maybe a better word would 
be 'dovecot quota status message' - could be very special, and each 
subsequent one could replace the previous, and contain a list of all of 
the messages in the 'queue' (for lack of a better word).

Look - if you don't like the idea, fine. Personally, I don't care if you 
do or not... *I* do - but not even my opinion matters. I'd like to hear 
what Timo has to say. If he says this is a dumb/bad idea - or very 
difficult or impossible to code in such a way as to behave reliably - 
then fine, that will be the end of it.

-- 

Best regards,

Charles