Why is this dead :-/

[HyperCriSiS]

Hi,

This is by far the most useful software I have ever used. I really wonder how other people properly filter and categorize their e-mails without having to manually moving shit around the whole time, every day. Have you been one of the core developers?

Best regards Hyper

[jgrahamc]

Hello. Yes, I am the core developer of POPFile (although a team of people helped me over the years). I haven't worked on it for a long time because although there are dedicated users like yourself the userbase became very small and most people who continue to use it don't need new features.

Are you still using it?

[HyperCriSiS]

Yes! 😊 It just works so perfect! Only thing I was missing when working via POP3 was a Thunderbird integration and the webinterface was a bit uncomfortable. I am switching to protonmail with IMAP now and I am unsure if it would go well with Popfile.

I wanted to stop using Popfile while I can chose to stop and I am not forced to because it suddenly does not work anymore.

If I would know that the development maybe would continue, even on a very small scale, I would never stop using it. It is just too good. Working with Sieve filters is no fun and much manual work.

I never understood how such an incredible software did not get more attention. I think most people had no idea how good this really is. Maybe the setup was also too complicated for some people.

It would be so awesome seeing this project alive again 😊😊

[jgrahamc]

I think the core technology works very well but all the stuff around it is where the real work is. All the integrations make this very complicated. Most people use web-based email now and so you'd have to integrate with it (probably via IMAP) and I decided it wasn't worth investing more time.

I'm really happy POPFile worked/works well for you.

There is an IMAP interface which should work with ProtonMail but it's been years since I tested it and bitrot may have set in.

[HyperCriSiS]

So there's no chance popfile will get some love again even on very small scale? 🥲

Where exactly do you see the most work?

[jgrahamc]

Unless someone else volunteers... no. I don't have the time to put into it at this point. I know there's a small, loyal user base and I'm sorry to let them down. But the world has mostly moved on from people using POP3/IMAP with mail clients and is using web-based email.

[HyperCriSiS]

That's really very sad to hear 😢 Yes most people use IMAP now, but I think there's a really large userbase using clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Thank you so much for creating this masterpiece. Served me very well for a long time now. Maybe it will be revived sometime 🙂