RFE: add an off-line mode

[ensc]

It would be nice when mail-notification has an off-line mode which
disables polling the mailboxes. This is useful in situations like

* being in foreign networks where mailbox is not available (e.g. being
  behind foreign firewall where mailbox access would trigger false
  alerts, or mailbox has a private ip which is used for something else
  in the foreign net)

* needing full concentration for other tasks and avoid to be distracted
  by popups

This off-line mode should be easily (de)selectable (e.g. make it a
"Click Action")

[Jean-Yves Lefort (jylefort)]

Not a bad idea, especially since quitting and restarting MN is a bit cumbersome. I'll think about it.

[ensc (enrico-scholz+launchpad)]

This is not a dup of 237293; I want user-control over the off-/online state of mail-notification, while 237293 wants that mail-notification detects off-/online state of the machine

[Jason Woofenden (jason210)]

I think this is a serious issue. See "Put the User in Control" in the GNOME HIG.

Even if we can only think of a few cases where the user would want to stop the mail checker, we still need to let them do it. The user was able to use the gui to get it checking their mail, and so they need to be able to use the gui to get it to stop for a while.

I've wanted to shut it off at least 10 times. Not being able to do this from the gui was frustrating.

I suggest adding a checkbox in the right-click menu of the notification area icon that says "Enable Mail Notification", like the "Enable Networking" item in the NM-applet right-click menu.

Here's a situation I can think of where it'd be particularly important to be able to disable mail notification: When you're connected to a dialup, or other slow/expensive network.