Oh come on, @ByteHamster, there were critical statements way back in 2015 which predicted the reactions of users we see happening now. All those remarks were put down and even also users were banned for speaking up for the masses!
There’s fund raising going on and there’s public money @cketti got for implementing jmap without any advantage as, maybe it’s just me, no one is using jmap and I’ve never even heard about it until now.
Providing code and contributing is one thing.
Paying respect to the users is another.
Still forking would have been the elegant way to go, as k9 with the new UI concept isn’t what k9 was known, loved and used for!
Maintaining a k9-classic and providing security fixes while simultaneously developing k9-new (or k10) with new UI and updates needed to get it prepared for the present would have allowed users to work on with k9-classic while being able to test and enhance k9-new until its usability is on pare with k9-classic!
Warning users prior to updating the version in play store would have been essential! Happened? No!
Documentation of how to use k9 after the update, where to find essential functions (selecting mails, update all accounts, etc etc) would have been essential! Happened? No!
Forking would have been possible up until the update to the play store. There’s no way to downgrade k9 to 5.6 in the play store now and adding a k9-classic even isn’t possible anymore. The way to go would have been to do a 5.6.1 update on the play store with just informing users of the release of 5.8 as k9-new (or whatever name). Allowing to have both versions installed and compare or migrate slowly. Happend? No!
An introductional tutorial for first time users of k9 (5.8) is urgently necessary, as it’s all but self explaining. Happened? No!
So what have we got? @cketti as the most active dev earning and funding money and even getting public money fundings for an app that’s not usable neither for long time users nor first timers.
K9 was the best email app out there for anyone with a need for getting work done with emails, having to use multiple accounts and still being fast and productive.
K9 is now nothing but a cash cow for only one.
That’s what I see, when I look at how users needs, wants and complains are handled.
That’s what I see when I look at the contribution graphs you, @ByteHamster, posted.
I see a single person’s interest to make a living and milk open source.
The simplest explanation I can think of :
Imagine you are viewing a bar graph of data that changes all day. When you open the graph you get ONE bar, to view the next bar you have to select a menu item, then select the bar you wish to view and then you have to click on it’s name and there is is, so if you have say 5 bars to view you have to do this repeatedly. You would expect to open the graph and see each of the bars on one page and click an item for details. I am an IT support professional so getting a notification and seeing all my accounts lined up is quick and easy, click, browse, no need to go through 4 steps to see if there is even any new mail in the account.
No it didn’t, that 's just your opinion. Taps still turn the same way to open, people don’t suddenly change from being right-handed to being left-handed, door-knobs don’t suddenly all open doors by lifting them upwards, all web-browsers still have a location bar, a back- and home-button. Really, your remark is such total nonsense! If it needed a ‘redesign’ people would have asked for it, the vast majority didn’t (if you don’t believe me, go check the recent Playstore score, the masses are leaving k9). The reason most users use(d) k9 was exactly because it did NOT look the same as all the flashy others.
Yes, we can all see the github history ourselves. And in that history, about 6 years ago, when Cketti became active, there is a thread where the new UI was started and a post by cketti stating all the changes that he wanted that are exactly what everyone is complaining about now.
And there is a 6 year history of him dismissing and ignoring user and other dev feedback on anything that was against his views.
Cketti should take his own advice and fork the project to his own personal repo and indicate as such since he clearly finds users an annoyance.
I know nothing about code nor open source development - I am just a long time K9 user.
There are many, many voices calling for just two changes in the latest version of K9 (return of account overview screen and return of action buttons to the bottom). There are also what seem like hints in a few comments that these might be in the works
Could maybe @cketti and/or @ByteHamster definitely confirm this? This would tamp down the chorus of negative comments here and - more importantly - keep loyal users, who will know they just have to wait a little while before a new version will be available that addresses these two concerns.
I just find it amusing that on one hand, the message is that we should fork as K-9 is only the way as the dev wants it to be and he owes us nothing, but on the other hand he was happy to receive several thousands of €s from the community to be a full time developer.
Didn’t he himself in that very same post suggest we pay someone to make K-9 the way we want it… Now, who paid him to NOT have K-9 the way it is now?
Yep, communication is not a one-way thing, adressing changes must be able to integrate feedback EARLY, otherwise it’s just announcement (sounds so).
Just have a look at the Play Store comments. Even the more than 3star comments complain about the same topics as we can read here.
And there is a lot of 1star feedback.
Thank you @cketti for the explanations, however do you realise what the actual message to the K9 users is? Y’all be damned. That is the message. Sincerely, not a nice message and certainly not a respectful one.
If K9 was made for you own personal use and if in it’s development user feedback is discarded, what was the point in posting it to Google Play in the first place?
Trying very hard not to post acid remarks because I deem it disrespectful.
I’m a developer myself (web) and not every time I am happy with what the user feels it’s better for him/her. Yeah, open-source projects too (as contrib). Doesn’t mean discarding them.
I saw in this same thread a mention about public funding from German tax funds… That is not a hobby for personal purposes anymore.
You know other people are using it. When coming up with such major changes, give people the choice. If it’s you, then you move your way and allow people to move in their preferred direction.
Hurting people is not the way to do it.
Hi. I was very surprised and also happy about the new update. So much so, that I wanted to come here just to say thanks.
But now I am furious about all the haters. Whats wrong with you? I understand that K9s UI did not change in a long time and that you got used to it. But this ancient UI detered a lot of users. I believe the target group for the only feature complete mail client on Android should not be some small group of people that can’t exit their habits.
If you don’t like the new update you also have a lot of options.
Use this forum to describe your old workflow and politely ask for suggestions on how to transfer it to thr new UI. Failing that: Since you were tech savy enough to find K9 in the past you can surely find the inevitable fork with old UI or make it yourself. Maybe an app isn’t what you are looking for anyways so why not install mutt in termux to avoid any exposure to this modern UI stuff?
Now people will say that modern looks don’t equal good UI. But the overhaul is not just that and I find it genuinely easier to understand and use. The sidebar is much better than the previous cascade of list views.
TLDR: I love the new design and am not amused by all the people complaining.
Has anyone mentioned that the swipe navigation to check all accounts for new mails (swipe in from left, tap on accounts, swipe down) is incompatible with Android’s gesture navigation in Android 10, 11 and 12?
When I swipe from the left, K-9 closes. Swiping from the sides of the screen is “back” and “close” in gesture navigation…
@cketti I guess that is the reason why many apps moved away from swipe hamburgers or set the corresponding flag to override Android’s gestures (e.g. Sygic).
