thinkingoutloud

Here is a thought...

Email is supposedly a digital metaphor for snail mail. With snail mail, you receive a letter in your mailbox (which you check every other day), and you take the letter out, process it, and either store it somewhere safe or discard it (POP).

That is how email used to work. At some point things changed so you no longer regularly clear your mailbox, but you just open the letter, read it, and put it back in (IMAP).

Actually, you no longer get the mail in the mailbox. You call the post office and ask them to read the letter to you (webmail).