From MozillaZine Knowledge Base

Anybody adding a setting to this article should verify that the setting will appear in the Config editor (you may have to add it if its not defined) or verify in the sources that its used (thats usually sufficient but not as reliable since it might be ignored in a release). It is not sufficient to rely upon documentation. For example, mail.use_x_sender , SpellChecker.PersonalDictionary, and mail.addr_book.ldap.disabled are just a few of the settings documented for Netscape Communicator 4.0 that are no longer supported. Its also a good idea to check if a unusual setting ever worked. For example, mail.movemail_program is "supported" by Thunderbird and has existed for over 7 years but it has never been implemented.

While it is useful to keep a historical record on what settings are available please don't document a setting if its not available in Thunderbird 2.0 or later. Choosing it as a starting point helps make things simpler.

Please don't add a setting if it doesn't apply to Thunderbird or other email clients built upon Thunderbird such as the open source version of Eudora. Don't add explanatory text about a settings different behavior for other applications. This isn't meant to slight Mozilla Suite or SeaMonkey users - the article is only meant to be a brief description of each setting, and adding application specific explanations and caveats adds clutter. Please add it in an article about that subject or a reference article instead. Tanstaafl 14:10, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

How about preferences that are new for the trunk (TB3.0, SM2.0), but not available in the current branch (TB2.0, SM1.1) versions? Add them anyway, and mark respectively? --Rsx11m 03:37, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Should the defaults be stated? Those may differ, e.g., between TB and SM though... --Rsx11m 03:51, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm trying to add new preferences from Thunderbird trunk builds, and will identify them as such. Ditto for open source Eudora. I repeat my statement that I don't think we should document anything that's SeaMonkey specific, whether its a released build or a trunk build. I'll document the defaults for the latest Thunderbird release, but if it changes I don't think we should mention the prior default setting (and what version it applied to).

I've added two new trunk preferences from bugs 372080 and 380354 as examples, marked with (Trunk) to make that distinction. Feel free to modify that, just a suggestion. I agree that this page should be as general as possible, focusing on TB if there are inconsistencies with other applications should be fine. Also, not all preferences appear in all platforms, thus those special cases probably shouldn't be listed either.

There have been a couple of changes of default values in Thunderbird 3.0, specifically: Forwarding inline, attachment disposition, and date included in reply headers. Should those be reflected in the current list, or maybe have a new article on noticeable changes in settings and UI behavior? --Rsx11m 23:25, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

As long as its only a dozen or so I suggest we keep the existing format that shows defaults for 2.x, but add a comment about the new default setting for the trunk. After 3.0 is released we can scan the list and update the default and remove the comment. We can highlight any noticeable changes in behavior in Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes Tanstaafl 08:00, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Ok, in addition to a handful of new prefs marked with '(Trunk)', I don't think there are too many changes in defaults (yet); mail.default_html_action may be another candidate for changed default. --Rsx11m 16:25, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

This article is meant to provide a short description of all the mail and news specific settings, not to be the definitive answer. I would prefer to see the effort spent in reference articles for the most common settings rather than trying to enhance this article.

Agreeing here too, the meaning of some preferences may be trivial in some cases, whereas the more complex preference settings should be explained in the reference articles following the usual template.

I'm trying to make this be a useful supplement to About:config_entries but don't plan on mimicking everything they do. For example, I don't plan on bolding settings or values in the table, since In-house style says thats not needed. Tanstaafl 05:31, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for getting this started, it's a great reference page for the mail/news settings! --Rsx11m 13:42, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Shared preferences (common for all applications) are set in mailnews.js, the TB-specific ones are in all-thunderbird.js (those override the ones in mailnews.js, this allows different applications to have different default settings and additional prefs). --Rsx11m 01:38, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

This article is still being written ...

--> This article is still being written, please try again in a couple of days <-- is at the top of this article. Remove this??? The last edit to this article was done months ago. Alice 13:06, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I removed it sometime in July. Tanstaafl 09:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC)