Gmail’s use of the “Conversation” causes confusion with its Filters system. If you are reading a message, aka “part of a conversation thread” then you can use the drop down menu “More Actions” => which shows a link “Filter Messages Like These.” It’s a good feature to have—if it worked properly. But the filter page that appears after you click this option does not pertain to the specific message (example, “sender”) but rather, to the FIRST message in the thread. And often times the first message is by YOU (the user).
Here’s how it plays out; I compose a message to ten people asking if they want to join a new fake band. I get a few positive responses. I read the response from “Jerry.” I decide to Filter all messages from him so that I can Label as “fake band.” I click “Filter Messages Like These.” Instead of populating the “From” address with Jerry’s, the filter populates it with my email address.
This is all the more problematic because for some reason, Gmail does not allow you to create filters based on Contact Groups, neither from the Contact Group edit panel nor from within Filters New panel. The situation is completely ridiculous because in most other places, Google is VERY on-top of granting access to your Contact List. I’ve written about this before, specifically the consequence of having to edit a filter per email address (which changes sometimes) rather than with a Person / Contact (or Group).
Oh Google! I have grown convinced that you alone are the most high Internet company, and will always do right. And yet I occasionally confront silly user interface glitches that seemingly contradict this vision of you as Ultra Righteous. Please please see if you can find someone who can take a break from counting money and insert some pragmatism into your designs.
