This is an imported post of mine from an older blog for historical purposes.

I'm giving up threaded emails (or "conversations" in Gmail and other clients) after nearly 10 years of using them daily and loving them. Why? This isn't a case of I accidentally deleted an email that was within an email conversation, that I crucially needed. It's something much simpler. To keep my inbox and folders cleaner.

Everyone's first thought is that conversation view keeps the inbox cleaner looking (it was my thought too for many years), but I found out it really makes it more complicated and less clean.

In most email chains you inevitably get the replies back with "thanks for letting me know" that don't provide any useful information to keep. These emails add clutter to conversations. Yes, you can delete individual messages within a conversation, but it usually is an additional click or two, instead of a simple delete button.

The other is the total opposite. When you get many replies back that each contain crucial information. Now they're all grouped together, and if you're trying to act on each reply separately if becomes a mess. With separate emails it becomes easier to reply back and delete just their message.

The third: multiple conversations within a conversation. This is another nightmare and it always happens. You email a group asking a simple question and eventually everyone goes off on their own tangent within the conversation! With separate emails I can deal with each tangent on it's own, instead of together in one group.

I know conversations are the popular choice by a long shot, but I just need a little peace and quiet from them for now.