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Re: REPLY vs. NEW MESSAGE [Was: Re: Lookup inside a procmail script]

2007-02-14 10:40:59
At 00:16 2007-02-14 -0500, Eric Wood wrote:
[snip]
I've actually done this before and got railed about it.  But is sounds
like email clients should default to clearing those extra thread headers
whenever a users modifies a subject line.  Maybe a good suggestion for
Thunderbird...

Refer to Ruud's reply about change of subject syntax.

It would be BAD for a mail client to discard thread headers just because 
the subject line changes - a subject line change is commonly performed on a 
thread where the author is taking a tangent on the existing discussion: 
someone posts  about something and mentions another issue, and the current 
reply ends up running with that other issue, not the primary 
one.  Eventually, someone decides to change the subject so that the two 
discussions can be tracked individually (say, because the secondary 
discussion isn't topical to list purists).  Every reply to THAT message may 
have the other subject heading and threading to it, but other replies to 
the original thread separate from the subject line change would still refer 
to the original references, not to the subject changed one.  There's also 
nothing stopping more than one person from creating offshoot subject lines 
near simultaniously - all referring to the original discussion, and in 
fact, being related to one another despite different subject headings.

Barring everything else, the references should point to the message which 
was being replied to (for instance, I clipped out a bunch of prior content 
from your message when I replied to it), and people should be able to refer 
back to the message I'm replying to.  But if I'm some lazy individual who 
isn't actually replying to your message, just using it to address a new 
message to the list, that backreference is improper.

On some lists, people (or automated systems) insert additional elements 
into the subject line.  [SCANNED] and [listid] and the like.  Subjects 
alone can't be relied upon to keep a thread together.

IMO, the appropriate thing would be for lazy people not to use an existing 
message to START A COMPLETELY UNRELATED DISCUSSION.  That's what "compose a 
new message" or whatever in your email client is for.  REPLY is for 
contributing to an existing discussion.

I suspect that the biggest reason threading isn't more prominent in many 
mail clients is because there's so many turkeys out there that can't manage 
to use email correctly.

---
  Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering

  Procmail disclaimer: <http://www.professional.org/procmail/disclaimer.html>
  Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies.  I'll get my copy from the list.


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