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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Re-sending...<br>
<br>
On Tue Apr 30 2019 13:23:40 GMT-0400 (Eastern Standard Time),
Alessandro Castellani <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:alessandro@thunderbird.net"><alessandro@thunderbird.net></a>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:da075632-6fb2-4290-87cd-c534568eb785@thunderbird.net">I
implemented that secondary button as Ryan told me there are
potential partnerships happening with various email providers.
Offering a "spotlight" placement in TB is pretty important in
order to close profitable deals with email providers, opposed to
something like "We're gonna put a link on one of our web pages".
We need a stronger selling point.</blockquote>
<br>
Makes sense, and I certainly agree we need a stronger selling point,
and this looks like a great thread and opportunity to repost
something I sent over a year ago to this list (didn't get a single
response then, maybe it will fare better this time around).<br>
<br>
So, here we go (I tweaked it a little)... and remember, this was
written over a year ago...<br>
<br>
Think of this as something offered on the Account Creation
dialog/wizard currently being discussed.<br>
<br>
***<br>
<br>
In my opinion revenue generation is probably the single most
important issue facing TB now, and I am very excited, surprised
even, at Kent's report of current donation levels (even more so now,
remember, this was originally written in February of last year), so
I'll take this opportunity to put forward an idea (again) I had some
time ago when these discussions first started (I sent it but it
never made it to the list, not sure why). This would (in my opinion)
generate substantially more revenue, because people would actually
be getting something meaningful in return, and it would also help
promote the Thunderbird Brand/Identity.<br>
<br>
Since Thunderbird will require its own infrastructure sooner or
later, why not develop and provide something I'll call, for lack of
a better term, a 'Thunderbird Hosted Communications Hub', providing
a service available only to those who choose to become financial
contributors. This would basically just consist of at least one
thunderbird.net (or whatever cool Thunderbird oriented domain is
chosen) email address, and hopefully/eventually some cool features
showcasing Thunderbirds capabilities (see below). I would suggest 2
or 3 different levels, e.g.:<br>
<ul>
<li>One time smallish contributors get a 'Basic' account, one
email address (@thunderbird.net, or whatever other coolish
Thunderbird related domain you want), low storage (1GB?), no
IMAP</li>
<li>Large one time contributors get much more storage (100GB
total?), maybe additional multiple email addresses and IMAP
access</li>
<li>Supporters who opt to provide a certain level of recurring
donations get unlimited storage/email addresses and IMAP and
Chat support</li>
</ul>
<p>There is a lot of potential for new services to attract even more
supporters:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>To really make this more compelling, I think it should offer
something unique, and I can't think of anything better than full
JMAP support, especially considering it is intended to both
replace IMAP, and by nature to be extensible. How about an
extension out of the box that allows you to Sync everything
(including your Profile/Settings) to a server that supports it
(does anyone remember that something similar was actually
possible using LDAP way back in t he Netscape days?)?</li>
<li>How about a partnership with Timo and the Dovecot guys to
provide the IMAP/JMAP Server support? I know he is working on it<br>
</li>
<li>And how about a partnership with the SOGo team to provide
Groupware (Contacts/Calendars) support?</li>
<li>Sync capability (see my comment below for details)</li>
<li>Opt-in offerings to help test new/beta features (like for the
hopefully upcoming JMAP support, that Dovecot is currently
working on)</li>
</ul>
<p>There was more, but the only other part I would include in this
email is this, that was in response to the question 'Where do you
see Thunderbird in 10 years?':</p>
<p>Pluggable Protocol Support - It should be easy to add - via an
Addon/Extension and/or to the core code, support for:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>New/next-generation protocols like JMAP (replacing IMAP+SMTP,
and eventually Cal/CardDAV), and *eventually* (but not until
existing functionality + maybe JMAP support, is fully replaced
and rock solid) others like Text/Chat (Signal, WhatsApp, and/or
even a native Mozilla/Thunderbird one the service for which is
provided by the 'Thunderbird Communications Platform' referred
to above under my general comments)</li>
<li>Pure server-side indexes like those provided by dovecot
eliminating the need for GLODA (for IMAP/JMAP users) and the
heavy (for some, unworkable) requirements - ie, must maintain a
fully local copy of all emails, making it less than useless for
heavy IMAP users with large mail stores</li>
<li>Full support for Server-Side filters (Sieve)</li>
<li>Support for managing Dovecot's Server Side Virtual Folders
(Virtual Folders everywhere, as opposed to Thunderbird's
local-only Virtual Folders (an excellent, but limited concept
when you use many different computers/systems to access your
email)</li>
<li>Native Sync capability(JSON?) for Contacts/Calendars for use
with the 'Thunderbird Communications Hub', or even your own
server (SFTP/WebDAV?) for security/privacy</li>
<li>Modular HTML composer/renderer support</li>
<ul>
<li>instead of reinventing the wheel, just provide hooks to some
of the more popular existing HTML composers (TinyMCE, Quill,
etc) and web engines (Quantum, Blink, EdgeHTML(/Trident?),
Webkit), and make it easy to switch between them should the
need ever arise - or to even strip support for it (HTML
rendering for emails) out completely if desired, reducing
everything to plain text automatically (I know some people who
prefer Claws Mail for that one reason)<br>
</li>
</ul>
<li>I personally don't use newsgroups, but once the heavy lifting
of making things modular is done, support could be properly
implemented by anyone willing to do the work.</li>
</ul>
<p>Anyway, that's it. I hope you see something here of value. If
not, no worries, I thank you for your time, and for everything you
are doing for Thunderbird.</p>
<p>Charles<br>
</p>
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