RE: [zzdev] "Mailboxes" is a misnomer

[Joshua Allen <joshuaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe a non-mis-nomer.

You cetainly have multiple mailboxes, such as voice mailbox,
e-mail inbox, probably a mailbox at your office.  Many
prople have more than one e-mail inbox, and ultra-organized
types have "in", "out", and "pending" boxes on their
desks (although this practice seems to be dying out).
All of these things are typically called "boxes".  The
term boxes is maybe too vague, though, so something like
mailbox or messagebox is appropriate.  I personally think
it's time to stop referring to the thing outside
my house as a "mailbox".  It's a "snailmail inbox". :-)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Benjamin Fallenstein [mailto:b.fallenstein@xxxxxx]
> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 12:21 PM
> To: zzdev@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [zzdev] "Mailboxes" is a misnomer
> 
> 
> Hi all--
> 
> reading the CyberText article, I've just noticed a bad misnomer:
> "mailboxes" for the different places in which you store mails. A
> mailbox, if my English serves me right, is the thing that is 
> next to the
> entrance of your house: there's one per flat, usually. 
> Extending this to
> the computer world, a mailbox is space in which all mails for 
> one person
> (or a group of persons) arrive. You hardly sort your mail 
> into different
> _mailboxes_! ;) So "mailbox" suggests the wrong things. 
> 
> "Filing" comes pretty close, although it has the wrong 
> conotations. What
> about "topic group" or something?
> 
> - Benja
>