[Coco] Thread mess?

[John W. Linville]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2014 at 03:18:09PM -0400, Louis Ciotti wrote:
> Part of the problem is every e-mail client handles e-mail differently, then
> throw in there how providers like google do everything how they think it
> should be handled and you have the mess we live in today.

There may be something to that, but most email clients at worst only
create problems for their own users.  Mistakes by people screw-up
threading for everyone.

People make two main mistakes in this regard:

  -- they attempt to start a new thread by replying to an existing
  message and simply changing the subject; or,

  -- they attempt to reply to a thread by sending a new message to
  the list while using the same subject as an existing thread.

The first case is commonly referred to as "hijacking" the thread.
The problem is that your message at the start of the "new thread"
is carrying email headers that link it to the pre-existing thread
of messages.  Even though you have changed the subject, most people's
email clients will continue to see it as part of the original thread.
Hopefully it is obvious why this annoys some folks -- you appear to
have changed the subject to something unrelated!

The second case can be referred to as "breaking" the thread.
Even though you use the same subject, your new messages has email
headers that identify it as a completely new thread.  Most people's
email clients will see this as a new thread, even though the subject is
the same.  Whether or not this is a problem depends a bit on how long
you have waited to reply and how many other replies to the original
thread have been sent, etc.  For most people, it removes the inherent
benefits of organizing your inbox by emails threads.

Many people seem to believe that email message threading is done by
subject, and there have been a few clients that have used subject
filtering as a "poor man's" version of threading.  But that technique
is very fragile, and many (most?) clients either only use it if there
are no relevant headers in a message or simply don't use it at all.

Sorry for the long reply, but this pokes a pet peeve of mine...

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.