Comment 3 for bug 241192

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.