gmail
I've been forced to use Gmail by my new employer. My old employer also used Gmail but the POP3 option was available to I consume that via Outlook.
The employer has locked the POP3 option so I've no choice but to struggle with the conversations, threads, labels system in Gmail.
Is there some way to make it work like old-skool email with Sent Items and each incoming/response a separate email item, most recent at the top?
The reason you receive sent mails on your POP3 inbox is because the sent emails are being sent from the web client directly and not through some 3rd party such as Outlook. If your send an email from outlook it will not send you your sent email again. However if someone does email from the web client directly. ie . from the website a copy of the sent email will be sent to the POP3 account.
You can use vacation responder for this.
Go into your Gmail settings and looks for a section called "Vacation Responder"
This will allow you to enter an auto-response for all incoming messages. Just uncheck the "Ends" box to make sure it will always be on.
Note: like it says in the help text in the image, if a contact sends you several messages, this automated reply will be sent at most once every 4 days.
Best Answer
You can turn off conversation view in the settings. It's on the "General" tab.
You can treat labels like folders; just "move" your messages to a label rather than "add" a label.