@dave, please forgive me for asking this question here, if I should have asked it elsewhere. Didn't know where to go! I love all the work that you do on the site. It is always improving! Was just wanting to know if you could make it so that we could make edits to tree-mails after we have hit the send button? I love being able to do that in our posts, and I'm just as sloppy when writing a tree-mail, often seeing a big blunder that I can't fix!

Pretty please?

I've always looked at tree mails the same way I view email. Once you send it, it's gone and can't be retracted or edited. So to make them editable would require some rethinking on how it works. But I'll give it some thought.

Except in real email, there's no "Preview" button so the fact that we have it in Tree is most fortunate, convenient and smart to use. I almost never press 'Send' immediately if my Tree is more than 1 sentence long or if I use emoticons and/or send pictures. When I am in a hurry, that's when the "Preview" button is most important.

dave said:I've always looked at tree mails the same way I view email. Once you send it, it's gone and can't be retracted or edited. So to make them editable would require some rethinking on how it works. But I'll give it some thought.

It's been a long time, so I don't remember where it was, but there was an email program that would allow you to retract an email if you did so before it was

I remember those but in nearly every case they didn't work. Once the email is sent it is immediately delivered across the network, usually directly to the user's computer. It has always been impossible to legally reach into someone else's computers and delete content. Those programs "worked" by sending a followup email that, when received by the recipient's software, will trigger it to delete the original mail. But both users had to have compatible software and few email clients supported retraction.

Read, reread, reread, reread, reread, reread, send.

dave said:I remember those but in nearly every case they didn't work. Once the email is sent it is immediately delivered across the network, usually directly to the user's computer. It has always been impossible to legally reach into someone else's computers and delete content. Those programs "worked" by sending a followup email that, when received by the recipient's software, will trigger it to delete the original mail. But both users had to have compatible software and few email clients supported retraction.

I will admit that I am not particularly knowledgeable about programming, but in this case we are not talking about emails being sent to someones computer. I'm guessing that ATP is a closed system, so T-mails should be retrievable. Now that I think about it, I believe it was AOL that had the retrievable email, since it was also a web based system. If you sent an email to another AOL user, it could be retrieved before it was read. I have not had this problem an ATP myself but I can see where it would be useful.

Thanks Dave! I appreciate it. The tree mails are so similar to a regular thread, in the way they look, so I was just assuming that it was possible, and maybe an easy thing to do. Don't want to cause you any extra work. I can read, reread, and read again, and I still mess up! I'm always spelling the wrong word right! Just thought it would be nice to fix my errors when I see them later, because I almost never see them before sending. Haven't written anything that I want to take back though. Just fix.

AOL was the program that made it possible to "unsend" an e-mail, but only one sent to another AOL user. Loved that feature! Not sure that it is still possible, since I no longer use the AOL software, but it came in handy from time to time.

Since treemail conversations look so much like a forum thread, it's easy to forget that it's not. I'm constantly looking for the thumbsup button when I read treemail. It would be nice to be able to go back and edit a sent t-mail that's in a conversation, but I have no idea how much work it would take to make that happen.

Since treemail is a private correspondence, between two or more people, I wonder what the ramifications would be if there was some kind of agreement that was later altered by one of the participating people? Many of us agree on trades, etc., through treemail.
Just a thought.

Mary, I do the same thing with the thumb! I'm always looking for the thumb! That often makes me realize that it's a tree-mail, and not a post on a thread. I love how the tree-mails look though. Wouldn't want that to change.

valleylynn said:Since treemail is a private correspondence, between two or more people, I wonder what the ramifications would be if there was some kind of agreement that was later altered by one of the participating people? Many of us agree on trades, etc., through treemail.
Just a thought.

That's an IMPORTANT thought, I think....

valleylynn said:Since treemail is a private correspondence, between two or more people, I wonder what the ramifications would be if there was some kind of agreement that was later altered by one of the participating people? Many of us agree on trades, etc., through treemail.
Just a thought.

I think the purpose would be to retrieve a mail before it was read. After it has been read there would be no need to edit, you could just a follow-up mail correcting any misinformation.

I wouldn't do a trade with someone I didn't trust to begin with. If someone cheats you, they are easily tracked down on here, and can be "outed" as a person not to make trades with. Just my way of thinking though. And, even with nothing altered in a treemail, it is no guarantee that you are going to get what you agreed to. I believe that you can take a screen shot of a treemail, and keep it until the trade is made, if that is the purpose of the treemail. If edits were allowed, I suppose you would have the screen shot on your side. I would never think of a treemail as a legal binding agreement, but maybe that is just me. I suppose the same agreement can be made through an e-mail, which can't be altered either, but you are still at the mercy of what the other person decides to do. It's a matter of trust.

Either way, I just wanted to correct my major bloopers when typing! Not that it is a must, but I thought it would be nice. I suppose there are a lot more important things to consider besides my typing!

Jay, I don't know that Natty's talking about retrieving a t-mail, as much as correcting it after it's been sent.

No, I wasn't talking about un-sending one. Just making corrections.

Thought of a way around the trade issue, when relying on treemail to keep the original agreement accurate. Just hit the quote button, and type something below it. If it were to work like the forums, the other parties couldn't change your part of the treemail, just their own part. If they made changes to a trade after it had been agreed to, the changes would not show up in the quoted box, only in their post. Then you could point out that it had been changed, and you could prove it as well. Easier than a screen shot!

fiwit said:Jay, I don't know that Natty's talking about retrieving a t-mail, as much as correcting it after it's been sent.

I understand that, but I don't see the usefulness of that. With a forum thread, a post may continue to be read months after it has been made, so editing would is useful. Once a person reads their tree-mail they are not likely to go back and reread, so edits would serve no purpose. It would be better to just send a follow-up to correct any misinformation that may have been sent. Now being able to retrieve before it is read would be useful. You could then correct typos, misinformation or just words that you might have regretted using, before they were seen.

Jay, you haven't read some of the things I've written in a treemail! Nothing bad, and nothing I'd ever want to take back. Just big errors!

I usually send a quick follow-up T-mail to make the correction - usually spelling errors.

That's what I do, add my 'oops' and correction but I always try to remember to do a preview first, it really helps!