not needed anymore thank God...

in gmail, open your settings, go to labs and turn on advanced imap controls.

now go to labels and un-check [ ] show in IMAP for all the useless folders:

• all mail
• starred

and any labels used for sorting/sifting online but not used in mail.app.

my mail storage size dropped 70% after removing all the duplication caused by the concept of labels vs folders.

-awr

I find the all mail folder fairly useful to have when I accidentally 'delete' (archive) a message (I wish there was a better way though if you know of any - if I have it sent to my trash, will it remove it from the server? I want all/most of my email to be archived) or when I want to look for a message I recently archived (if it's more than a few days old then I use the web interface.)