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Make Contacts -> Trusted Senders
Idea shared by kevind - 11/10/2015 at 10:14 AM
Completed
Most email systems use a person's contacts as 'trusted' senders. Suggest that SmarterMail do the same and drop the separate Trusted Senders list.
 
Even email senders expect your Contacts to be trusted. Examples:
This change would make it easier as most users don't even know the Trusted Senders lists exists. Also, it's not that intuitive to add to the list (need to mark message as Not Spam or edit the list under Settings). Also, can't be done from a smartphone or email client.
 
Thanks,
Kevin

33 Replies

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1
I give credit to Scarab as he/she suggested something similar back in 2014:
http://portal.smartertools.com/community/a935/treat-smartermail-contacts-as-trusted-senders.aspx

SM replied that sometimes a contact is not trusted. Unlikely, but if it really matters just add a checkbox to contacts that says: [X] Do Not Trust
...lol
5
Here's a bug with Trusted Senders:
  1. Highlight several messages in your Inbox
  2. Choose Actions - Mark - Not Spam
  3. Only the sender of the 1st message gets added to Trusted Senders
It's time to dump Trusted Senders and just use Contacts instead. That's what everyone expects:
 
4
Another problem with Trusted Senders -- when you mark a message as Not Spam, it adds both the From address and the Reply To address to Trusted Senders.
 
So you end up with a bunch of entries in trusted senders that look like this:
reply-fe681271776605787617-7706239_html-856351357-10733530-86@reply.usatoday.com
 
Really, you only need this: 
noreply@reply.usatoday.com
 
Can we add this to the list or mark it Under Consideration since it has 11 votes?
Thanks.
0
This has been requested for YEARS. These things get put on a "feature request" list. Not many feature request ever make it to production. It's pretty much a waste of time.
0
Unfortunate, but feel free to vote it up anyway if you haven't already. :-)
4
Just received a message from Newegg with this at the top:
Ensure delivery by adding promo@email.newegg.com to your Address Book.
And it reminded me of this thread. Hoping this idea makes the next version. This thread + Scarab's thread = 22 votes!
 
Plus there are bugs with the current implementation:
 
I don't see a need to confuse users with a separate Trusted Senders list. But if you can't remove it for some reason, at least move it so that it's in the Contacts section where it would make more sense. Then all address books (My Contacts, GAL, Trusted Senders, and even Auto-Complete) would be in the same place with the same editing tools for management.
2
Related to this, I think, is a situation we've run into regarding trusted senders. I would say most of my users do not keep their contacts in the web interface, so I see the need for the trusted senders list.
 
However, in the scenario where numerous email accounts on a domain deal with a many of the same people outside their domain (which encompasses most of my clients and even our own CharlesWorks email) it would be beneficial to have a trusted sender added to the domain level by a user on domains chosen to operate in that manner.
 
This should be a switchable item, i.e., have the ability to turn this feature on and off on a domain basis. The biggest complaint about SmarterMail I get relates to spam issues and trusted senders and so on. I wish I had a dollar for every time a user told me they clicked unblock sender thinking they were teaching the system to place email from that address into their inbox. Very frustrating for them and ultimately we who manage these systems. The general user base just wants their mail to work and miraculously sort spam from their expected email.
 
So I see the need for recognizing contacts as trusted AND for a trusted sender list on both a domain and user level that can be added to by users or not according to a setting.
 
Take care, Charles - Please LIKE US at http://facebook.com/CharlesWorksLLC and connect with me at http://linkedin.com/in/charlesworks "Bridging the gap between geeks and everyone else since 1998." CharlesWorks for YOU! CharlesWorks, LLC, Peterborough, NH 03458-1645 http://CharlesWorks.net - Domains - Hosting - Web Design - WordPress - Social Media Updating - Search Engine Optimization - 603-924-9867 office
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My solution would be a Global Contact List that everyone on the domain has access to. These global contacts would also be trusted senders.
5
Here's another problem related to this -- how do you add someone to Trusted Senders???
 
Open a message in your Inbox and hover over the From address. You see 3 choices:
  • Email
  • Add Contact
  • Block Sender
Where's the option to add this person to my Trusted Senders???  Oh, just choose "Actions -> Mark -> Not Spam" to add the user to Trusted Senders. Intuitive? No!
 
It's easier to Block Sender (which should never be used BTW -- https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a87133/block-sender-loses-messages.aspx) than it is to add someone to Trusted Senders!!!
 
Sorry if I'm sounding a bit harsh, but how many votes will it take to fix this???
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I like this idea very much - but it still doesn't help since most (of my users anyway) do not store their contacts in their SmarterMail. I really believe both can be implemented - global or local trusted senders AND trusted contacts.
Take care, Charles - Please LIKE US at http://facebook.com/CharlesWorksLLC and connect with me at http://linkedin.com/in/charlesworks "Bridging the gap between geeks and everyone else since 1998." CharlesWorks for YOU! CharlesWorks, LLC, Peterborough, NH 03458-1645 http://CharlesWorks.net - Domains - Hosting - Web Design - WordPress - Social Media Updating - Search Engine Optimization - 603-924-9867 office
0
Absolutely agree that this aspect of SmarterMail is not intuitive. It may be that SmarterTools is more removed from the email users because it deals primarily with mail server administrators, leaving a lack of empathy with that end user.

Email users just do not want to be mail server administrators.
Take care, Charles - Please LIKE US at http://facebook.com/CharlesWorksLLC and connect with me at http://linkedin.com/in/charlesworks "Bridging the gap between geeks and everyone else since 1998." CharlesWorks for YOU! CharlesWorks, LLC, Peterborough, NH 03458-1645 http://CharlesWorks.net - Domains - Hosting - Web Design - WordPress - Social Media Updating - Search Engine Optimization - 603-924-9867 office
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Charles, thanks for the support! You said that your users don't keep their Contacts in the web interface. Is that because they use an email client like Outlook?

If so, I think my proposal to use Contacts as trusted senders would be beneficial. The reason is that you can sync Contacts with an email client using CardDAV, ActiveSync, etc. There is no way to sync Trusted Senders with an email client AFAIK.
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I believe most of what we are asked for help with hooking up along the lines of mail clients are Outlook, Windows Mail (replaced Microsoft's Outlook Express), any every flavor of Android and iPhone imaginable. With the exception of Outlook.

Now if SmarterMail was "smart" enough to place the sender of an email BEING MOVED VIA IMAP from the Junk folder to the Inbox into the contacts and made a trusted sender, THAT WOULD BE INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE. And the inverse as well - remove them from the trusted sender list and/or contacts once deemed spam.

This would simplify the spam handling process incredibly for the end users.
Take care, Charles - Please LIKE US at http://facebook.com/CharlesWorksLLC and connect with me at http://linkedin.com/in/charlesworks "Bridging the gap between geeks and everyone else since 1998." CharlesWorks for YOU! CharlesWorks, LLC, Peterborough, NH 03458-1645 http://CharlesWorks.net - Domains - Hosting - Web Design - WordPress - Social Media Updating - Search Engine Optimization - 603-924-9867 office
1
Yes! This idea has been on the board for almost 2 years now... https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a362/allow-reporting-of-spam-via-imap.aspx
Would be nice to see it implemented. I'm pretty sure Gmail has this feature.
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>> Email users just do not want to be mail server administrators.<<
 
Charles, you are 100% Correct!
 
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It's going on 1 Year of being "Under Consideration". It would be nice to get a answer.
Kendra Support http://www.kendra.com support@kendra.com 425-397-7911 Junk Email filtered ISP
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Matthew, thanks for the support. Please vote for this thread if you haven't already.

Gmail, with over 1 billion users, uses Contacts to whitelist messages. When people in your address book send you messages, they don't get marked as spam. Simple.

The "trusted sender" concept is outdated.
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Paul, thanks for the support. Please vote for this thread if you haven't already.

Agreed, that often the 'user perspective' is lost in IT system design. Not just picking on SM as it happens throughout the industry.

But hopefully we can give good feedback to SM through this forum so they design user-friendly software which ultimately helps us mail admins by reducing support calls and increasing user satisfaction.
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kevind,
I have voted for the thread. It seems SM only pays attention when there is a lot (I mean a LOT) of discussion. Votes don't seem to count.
Kendra Support http://www.kendra.com support@kendra.com 425-397-7911 Junk Email filtered ISP
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Agreed, Kevin. This is a constant issue with UI design, and not just SM.

And indeed, I had already voted up this thread.
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Yes, the infamous "Show Password in 15.x" thread had only 9 votes -- half as many as this one! But SM bent over backwards to grant the request, due to the large # of replies or the loud complaining.
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Just noticed this bug where it only adds the sender of the 1st message to Trusted Senders is resolved in version 15.4.6151 (likely it was fixed prior to this release).

But it's still not intuitive for users to choose "Not Spam" to add someone to Trusted Senders (see Aug 31 post below).

So the primary idea of this thread is still relevant -- merge the Trusted Sender list into Contacts. Don't force the user to maintain 2 lists.
5
For anyone that's using the SM16 beta, just wondering if this has been addressed? I didn't see anything in the release notes.
 
Since there's no way to sync Trusted Senders with Outlook or a Smartphone, it really makes sense to get rid of Trusted Senders and just use Contacts which can be updated by email clients and mobile devices.
 
Then messages from your friends, family, etc. can skip the spam checks (and greylisting, I think) to be delivered directly to your Inbox.
 
Thanks!
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Matt Petty Replied
Employee Post
I've got good news! This is being implemented in SmarterMail 16! We are not replacing trusted senders, this will still exist. Still in the meeting now, so I don't have a ton of details yet. However, your contacts will also be considered trusted senders. :D

You will probably see this next week in the Beta release. We are still doing a push today for Beta, we just need time to implement this.
Matt Petty Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Awesome! This will help #MAGA. :-)
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What about Version 15 for the people who will wait to see what the bugs are in V16 before upgrading. Are we on our own?
Kendra Support http://www.kendra.com support@kendra.com 425-397-7911 Junk Email filtered ISP
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Matt Petty Replied
Employee Post
Kevin, this is in on 16 current beta, We managed to get it into the release Friday, it may not have been in the changelog.
Matt Petty Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Matt Petty Replied
Employee Post
Not sure, with the focus on 16 lately, I don't quite have an idea what will be moved down or not.
Matt Petty Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Great! I did see it in the changelog for SmarterMail 16.0.6229.41104:

CHANGED: user contacts lists are treated as trusted senders; there is now warning text informing the user of this change

We'll try it out. Nice work!
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Thanks Matt.
Kendra Support http://www.kendra.com support@kendra.com 425-397-7911 Junk Email filtered ISP
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I proposed an idea past one of the devs about being able to populate Trusted Senders automatically when a user sends an email through SM no matter what method they use, so this would include POP, IMAP, mobile devices, etc. The contacts as trusted senders is nice, but as previously stated in this thread already, I am in the same boat where not all of my users save their contact books in SmarterMail nor do they seem to be interested in doing so. Users want simplicity and trying to change that is often a challenge.
 
The feedback I get from a lot of my users is that they would like to be able to send a user an email and be able to get a response without the message showing up in their Junk E-mail. I agree with that and I have experienced that sitaution myself where a response shows up in my Junk E-mail. There was a product we were using in the past that when a user sent an email through the mail server it logged the recipient's email address in a trusted list with the assumption that the original user wanted to get a response back from them. Yes there pluses and minuses to this method, but it made support calls for this type of complaint to almost none. All my users want is to simply be able to send an email to someone and make sure that when said user responds back that they will get it delivered to their inbox. About 99% of my users use email clients and not all of them use Outlook. Out of those about 98% - 99% use POP only.
 
It would be really nice if we could enable a feature in SM somewhere for people that want to use an automatic method for safe listing and the people that don't care to use that feature don't have it enabled. Making it so that no matter what method a user has at their disposal to send email through your server would cover everyone and not just assuming all users are just going to use the webmail interface.
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Matt Petty Replied
Employee Post
That is a great idea. I could see this being implemented in the future. I think it would be best if you put it on another post. Since this one was recently marked as Completed I don't want your idea to fly under the radar.
Matt Petty Software Developer SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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I started a separate post on this idea. I realized after I submitted this that since the thread was listed as completed it may get over looked.

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