IMO, this is an area where 37signals has the right approach.
I run into things like this when we consolidate email systems. Its always a battle.
Weird corner cases like the guy who has 50,000 folders in his inbox, cross referenced with multiple copies of messages in folders. Then you have the guy with 75,000 objects in his Inbox. Or the one with 120 GB of email dating back 20 (!) years who must have all mail on an online mailbox and cannot use archiving.
At the end of the day, supporting the bizarro corner cases can impact your ability to support the other 99% of the users.
To make it worse, in most cases, you are just on the receiving end of a power trip or attention whoring episode anyway. So, if these people are peons, you tell them to piss off. If they are bigshots, you waste money dealing with their whims.
I run into things like this when we consolidate email systems. Its always a battle.
Weird corner cases like the guy who has 50,000 folders in his inbox, cross referenced with multiple copies of messages in folders. Then you have the guy with 75,000 objects in his Inbox. Or the one with 120 GB of email dating back 20 (!) years who must have all mail on an online mailbox and cannot use archiving.
At the end of the day, supporting the bizarro corner cases can impact your ability to support the other 99% of the users.
To make it worse, in most cases, you are just on the receiving end of a power trip or attention whoring episode anyway. So, if these people are peons, you tell them to piss off. If they are bigshots, you waste money dealing with their whims.