Reply clean does not work

[bremenpl]

Hi,
I am using the latest Aquamail from the google play store as of today. This bug exists for a while now:

There is a button called "reply clean". I believe that when one replies to an email woth it, the reply message text box should be empty, without cited text. That is not the case, as there is bo difference between regular reply and reply clean (cited text present). So I always need to select all text and remove it whenever this feature is needed.

Can anyone confirm?

[mkgtu]

I am not using the latest. Still on 1.32.1 (I like to make sure the bugs are caught before updating!)
  But I have the same experience. "Reply clean" still contains quoted text from previous email. Actually, I never use that function and am not sure what "reply clean" is supposed to do. Maybe someone could explain. If I understood what it does, I might use it.
  However, another button, "reply as new", does create a reply with an empty message field, no quoted former text.
   This leads me to believe that "reply clean" must mean something other than removing previous text. Why would there be two buttons that do exactly the same thing?
   Enlightenment and clarification appreciated

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[bremenpl]

Thanks for the answer. Reply as new still have your signature there- I assumed reply clean is conpletelly clean.

[mkgtu]

Didn't know about the signature being there. I don't use signatures. But I would assume that if you use automatic signatures on all your regular emails they would also be there by default on any replies, no matter whether "clean" or "as new". "Clean" and "as new" probably don't mean "anonymous".
    But I still would appreciate an expert explanation from someone about what "clean" and "as new" are actually supposed to do — and the specific differences between them.

On related note: I always just leave the cited text there and I wish all companies/developers would do the same. I hate it when I get a (usually long delayed) reply to, eg, a support request and there is no quote of my original message to remind me of what the h--- my initial query was all about. This is especially annoying when the reply is just a vague, non-responsive, cookie-cutter admonition to uninstall and re-install whatever app. The equivalent of, "Are you sure your refrigerator is plugged in?" Duh!
   Just my pet peave

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[mkgtu]

I just googled "clean email reply" and it seems (at least in Outlook) that cleaning your reply involves deleting redundant messages from your conversation thread, specifically previously "quoted" messages that are usually already contained in the most recent reply. This prevents your replies from containing a five mile long string of every message, each of which contains a string of repetitive copies of copies of the same texts. The "clean reply" will still contain the full thread as quoted in the most recent reply, but you won't see duplicates of the same quotes, like endless mirror images stretching back to the Big Bang.
   At least that's my understanding from what I read about how Outlook does it. Here's a link:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-conversation-clean-up-to-delete-redundant-messages-70179d54-fa57-48ce-95fd-416d72e5ccd4


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[mkgtu]

So if you want nothing in the reply message box, you'd need to use "reply as new" and simply delete your signature if you want to be anonymous. That's easier than deleting whole strings of quoted text

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[bremenpl]

This is not about some emailing rules mumbo jumbo... Clean answers are used for stuff like when you answer via email as a forum post and etc. There are cases in which you dont want to cite anything. Clean is clean, cmon.

[bremenpl]

Also, regarding the differences between "reply clean" and "reply as new"- for the latter you lose the email title.

[mkgtu]

True, in "reply new", you lose the "re: " subject line"" and just get a blank subject field. Obviously, since the intent of replying "as new"  is to break the conversation thread and start a "new" thread with a new subject.

  As for "reply" and "reply clean", I've played around with those and I fail to see any difference between them at all. I still await "expert" advice on that.

   I did come across this comment in a reply from the developers in this forum on March 2 2014:
  "On (the) other hand, reply and forward commands in the menu (not the icons) are for special cases, one of them (reply clean) does not add quoting prefixes, and this is deliberate (that's the point of this command)."

That seems like a pretty clear and straightforward explanation, except that the "quoting prefixes" referred to are those little carats > >> >>> scattered all over the place to mark off quoted text. Anyway,  most emails I've seen (GMail, Outlook, AquaMail, Fastmail, etc) don't use those carats as "quote prefixes" anymore. They use those long, indented vertical lines on the left side to mark off past message text (kind of like a folder tree). And "reply clean" definitely doesn't remove those lines, though it may have removed those distracting carats in days gone by.

My conclusion, unless I hear otherwise, is that the "reply clean" is pretty much a dinosaur, a white elephant, a useless appendage, which doesn't do anything anymore any different from the ordinary "reply" button, especislly since the "quote prefixes" it was designed to remove don't exist in modern emails anymore.
     If it doesn't do anything, maybe it should be retired. Outlook and GMail Android apps don't have such a command.

   What might be helpful is a new command to "reply without quoting". The only way to do that now seems to be to change the global settings to not include quotes in any and all replies. And selecting and deleting all the quoted text in particular a reply is a bit of a pain.



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[bremenpl]

Well spotted and explained. Indeed I also see no difference between reply and reply clean.

In general, for the situations given, I would appreciate a button that would reply with empty text (even no signature).

[mkgtu]

I just noticed that GMail (Android app) has such a feature. And it's very simple.
   When you reply, all the quoted text is initially hidden in the message field under those three little dots. (same as in AM). When you tap the dots all the quote history is expanded. (same in AM). BUT in GMail if you LONG PRESS those three dots you immediately get an option to "DELETE QUOTED TEXT". (SEE SCREENSHOT) Tap that and, voila!, all your quotes (and only your quotes) are gone. Your signature (if any) and your subject line remain.
   (Aqua Mail does not implement any such option, nor does Outlook for Android.
   

I think this would easily and simply accomplish what you're looking for.

By this point in the thread I'm sure nobody is still reading. And I doubt the developers have ever read much of it; they certainly have not weighed in on the subject. I'd suggest you start a new thread with a feature request to implement such an option.

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[bremenpl]

Thanks for the info,
Imo after AM was sold out by that guy from russia this forum is not anymore like you said