Note: This document is a draft open to comments and suggestions. To add comments and suggestions, please log in to Notion and make them directly in the document. If you do not wish to create a Notion account, feel free to send your comments via email to [email protected].

Introduction

As a user of an open-source email client (Thunderbird) receiving marketing emails,

I want to be able to identify messages with expiration dates, especially those that have already expired,

In order to effectively declutter my inbox and actively contribute to reducing the ecological impact associated with storing these expired messages.

Problem and Context

The "Email Expiration Date" project aims to reduce the environmental impact of commercial emails by facilitating the deletion of outdated messages. Currently, email clients lack integrated tools to effectively manage the deletion of emails sent by advertisers who have set an expiration date. Implementing this feature in Thunderbird would provide users with effective cleanup tools based on email expiration dates.

For more information about the project and the proposed standard, please refer to:

• "Email Expiration Date" project site: https://www.zerocarbon.email/
• Internet standard draft published at the IETF: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-mailmaint-expires/

User Benefits

Integrating this feature would allow Thunderbird users to more easily clean up their inboxes by automatically deleting expired messages they are unlikely to read. With just one or two clicks, they could remove hundreds of unnecessary messages, improving email management efficiency and contributing to the reduction of the carbon footprint associated with email storage.

Implementation Proposal

We are considering several options for implementing this feature:

1. Search Option: Add a search option to find all expired messages in an email inbox. Users can then simply delete the messages if they wish.
2. Virtual Folder/Tab: Create a virtual folder (or tab) listing all expired emails, offering the user the option to delete them with a single click.
3. Expired Message Alert: Display an alert whenever more than xx expired messages are present in the email inbox, offering the user the option to delete them with a single click.
4. Automatic Deletion: Allow Thunderbird to automatically delete expired emails from a given sender. In this case, it is essential to obtain the user's explicit consent so that no emails are deleted without their authorization.