I just sent my first email with Mailspring and was found it uncomfortable to see that link and read tracking was enabled by default on my fresh install (via Arch AUR).
I believe that tracking should be disabled by default and an made an opt-in feature.
(Originally posted by zowber on GitHub.)
(Original issue had 22 upvotes.)
Hey! Thanks for the feedback—the reason these are enabled by default is because they’re the reason a lot of sales and business-oriented folks download and use Mailspring in the first place (and then pay for Mailspring Pro!) I agree it’s not for everyone, but I can’t afford to obscure them by default and risk lowering the Pro conversion rate among folks that think it’s the most useful bizdev/sales feature ever. (They’re the reason I can afford to maintain Mailspring all day long!)
That said, I’m working on updates to the onboarding flow and I think it’s likely we could add a checkbox in there that says something along the lines of “I’m not interested in trying out Mailspring Pro features” so you can hide this stuff more easily.
(Originally posted by bengotow on GitHub.)
I hear your point loud and clear. If the pro subs pay for the development I agree it should be your focus to nudge users in the direction you mention.
I think perhaps the drive I felt to raise this issue was more of a knee-jerk reaction to seeing the program work by default in a way that I feel doesn’t respect or empower me as a user nor respect the people I chose to send mail to. I really don’t want to know if recipients have opened/read my messages, and don’t feel it’s right to be tracking them without their explicit knowledge of what is happening.
However I do fully support your idea that these settings and the ability to opt in/out could be presented in a clear way during on-boarding and would thus hand choice and power back to the user. I.e., presenting all the default authoring options, explaining what they do and what their benefits may be, and allowing setting of those options before any mail has been sent or received. That would certainly resolve my issue, at least in the case of new installs.
(Originally posted by zowber on GitHub.)
I think perhaps the drive I felt to raise this issue was more of a knee-jerk reaction to seeing the program work by default in a way that I feel doesn’t respect or empower me as a user nor respect the people I chose to send mail to. I really don’t want to know if recipients have opened/read my messages, and don’t feel it’s right to be tracking them without their explicit knowledge of what is happening.
Just want to chime in and second your opinion. I wasn’t aware of the tracking being applied by default (let alone that it was a feature) and was almost about to uninstall Mailspring immediately after not being able to find a global setting to disable it. I’ve only later learned from another GitHub issue that it’s possible to turn it off in the options below the mail, which I assume few first-time users explore if they just want to go on with working on their mail.
I fully understand that this project operates between being free, open source software and being a product that you would like to sell, but being transparent to your users (and potential customers) about which (somewhat) privacy-invasive options are applied by default would go a long way in increasing trust and reputation for your software.
That said, thanks for the great piece of software!
(Originally posted by slhck on GitHub.)