As part of the preliminary work for the folder summary (bug 492158), we need to decide where to put the start page. Currently, the start page shows in the message pane when Thunderbird starts up, but that only makes sense because otherwise, the message pane would be empty. With the folder summary landed, it would be better to show the folder summary on startup, but then what do we do with the start page?

Mail Summaries handles this by allowing users to open the start page in a new tab, but that might not be a good solution.

Ideas?

I think the issue may be that I never see the start page. I remember it in a historical sense, but I do not think I have actually seen it for a long time.

I can not find any option to show it in a new tab, but I think we probably need to have "start page pane" in the summaries. When I look at the summary, I see a white space following the graphs that would allow for about five lines. Perhaps we should look at including the start page in that space in a scrollable form, with a show in tab option/button.

Since we get a very significant part of our donations through the appeal on that page... we probably don't want to change that part.

I can not find any option to show it in a new tab, but I think we probably need to have "start page pane" in the summaries.

If you're using Mail Summaries, that's because the code to open the Start Page in a new tab is broken. :( It used to work...

Another option here would be to do something like the early prototypes for the folder summary: there was a plan to have a little bubble with news/updates: see attachment 379725 [details]. We might want to do something different though so that it's more prominent. With a UI like in the mockup, it might be too easy for it to end up scrolled off-screen.

I'm not sure about this as I agree with Magnus that we shouldn't move that donation funnel around.
We could probably implement some of these links (donate and support?) in the Account Central page, but after the user has configured his accounts, I don't see it accessing that view as often as the message pane.

A thought - present the start page at startup in that same space, but thereafter only at some other designated events or commands?

We could also on the start page give users the key combo or menu sequence of how to return to the start page should they want to do so.

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #5)

A thought - present the start page at startup in that same space, but thereafter only at some other designated events or commands?

That breaks consistency a bit, and as Magnus said, we're getting a significant part of our donations from there, so I'm not sure we should remove it from there.

We could also on the start page give users the key combo or menu sequence of how to return to the start page should they want to do so.

That's not recommended. Never rely on user's memory or try to teach a specific pattern to access something that we want to show. If that page is important, we have to show it when we can without relying on a user's triggered command.

I am not backing away from my suggestion it be included in the summary page, or a link to it. Just having the option to see it without having to restart Thunderbird should be a boon.

An additional thought, there has been over the years an ongoing low level of folks asking to be able to specify a startup folder, there have also been ongoing "complaints" that the master password does not protect viewing of messages, recent changes see the UI loaded before the master password is entered. If this change allowed the account central to be set as the default it would meet the need of those looking for trivial protection that stopped mail just being displayed on startup. (yes I know pressing escape removes the dialog)

Otherwise, I see no need to change the existing display on startup as integrating the addon should not significantly impact the startup process.

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani (:aleca) from comment #6)

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #5)

A thought - present the start page at startup in that same space, but thereafter only at some other designated events or commands?

That breaks consistency a bit, and as Magnus said, we're getting a significant part of our donations from there, so I'm not sure we should remove it from there.

Isn't that what the current behavior is? Show the start page in the message pane on startup, but afterwards, if no message is selected, it shows a blank pane. (It's been a while since I used TB without Mail Summaries, so maybe the behavior is different now...)

We could probably implement some of these links (donate and support?) in the Account Central page, but after the user has configured his accounts, I don't see it accessing that view as often as the message pane.

What do you think of my suggestion in comment 3? It shouldn't be too difficult to put a short callout for donations/support at the top(?) of the folder summary, possibly with a link to open a new tab in TB with more info. We could even randomly show different messages like the "snippets" feature in the newtab page in Firefox.

In addition, I expect people will be a little more interested in the account central page once the new version lands. It provides a (hopefully) nice summary of recent messages, common correspondents, and some graphs of debatable usefulness. There's probably room for improvement there, but I hope it can be a "homepage" of sorts for your account.

As Matt mentions, one improvement of this UX over the current UX is that users will see the donation link more often, since we'll be able to display it throughout a session instead of just at startup.

I'm not sure about this as I agree with Magnus that we shouldn't move that donation funnel around.

But start page must now be a lower percentage of income compared to three years ago:

• we now have broader marketing efforts
• the in-app donation appeal capability originating in 2022
• donation link in the Help menu

It would be useful to check our metrics to see how much / what percentage we are getting the start page.

(In reply to Jim Porter (:squib) from comment #8)

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani (:aleca) from comment #6)

We could probably implement some of these links (donate and support?) in the Account Central page, but after the user has configured his accounts, I don't see it accessing that view as often as the message pane.

What do you think of my suggestion in comment 3? It shouldn't be too difficult to put a short callout for donations/support at the top(?) of the folder summary, possibly with a link to open a new tab in TB with more info. We could even randomly show different messages like the "snippets" feature in the newtab page in Firefox.

In addition, I expect people will be a little more interested in the account central page once the new version lands. It provides a (hopefully) nice summary of recent messages, common correspondents, and some graphs of debatable usefulness. There's probably room for improvement there, but I hope it can be a "homepage" of sorts for your account.

As Matt mentions, one improvement of this UX over the current UX is that users will see the donation link more often, since we'll be able to display it throughout a session instead of just at startup.

So is bug 530553 a dead end? (note also bug 530558)

I heard recently that there is a desire to do bug 492158 - Provide [overall] summary of messages. Will that force bug 530553? I'm not suggesting bug 530553 must be the answer. But we do need a discussion and decision, because currently it's a bit of a mess.

Also the questions surrounding this go deeper than money. The start page has value in informing users about our community in a way that menus are incapable of doing, due to space, etc. So another question may be, maybe we need a direction that is different than the current start page. What will users actually pay attention to, and where?

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #10)

I heard recently that there is a desire to do bug 492158 - Provide [overall] summary of messages. Will that force bug 530553? I'm not suggesting bug 530553 must be the answer. But we do need a discussion and decision, because currently it's a bit of a mess.

From my POV, if we implement bug 492158, it would be very nice to see the folder summary immediately when you start up Thunderbird (assuming you had a folder selected when you shut it down last time). That means we're competing for that real estate with the start page, so we need some answer about what to do with the start page.

One option would be bug 530553. Another would be to put some of the start page's content inside the folder summary (see attachment 379725 [details] for an example: it's the little speech bubble from the bird at the bottom). I have no strong opinions about what to do with the start page; personally, I'd be fine with it going away entirely. But that's just from a user's POV these days.

More generally, assuming there's a plan to implement bug 492158, I'm happy to assist where possible. It'd be nice to have that code move into Thunderbird as we had originally hoped to all the way back in the 3.x days. I still have the code, and have gotten it partially working in new versions of TB: https://github.com/jimporter/mail-summaries