Fedora Core Support List Unofficial User's Guide (draft 2 - Duncan Lithgow))

[Gustavo Seabra]

On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 07:38:27 -0600, David Hoffman <dhoffman2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 01:12:35 -0600, Gustavo Seabra
> <gustavo.seabra at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Another thing that may be interesting is to suggest the person who
> > made the original post to, when a solution to his problem is found,
> > finish the discussion with a last post adding something like [SOLVED]
> > to the subject line, and indicating /what/ exactly solved the problem.
> > That should help the readers to know the problem was finally solved
> > without even having to read the messages; helps the monthly
> > statistics; helps *a lot* when searching the archives later.
> 
> Unfortunately, changing the subject lines breaks threading. It makes
> it look like an entirely new thread. The archives, news readers, and
> some mail programs (gmail) can sort messages into conversations based
> on the subject line. If you change the subject line, then the "Solved"
> portion of the message shows up as another thread.

I have been using Thunderbird ever since I installed FC3 here, and
never had this problem. Just changing the *subject* line always
preserved the thread. That is actually the reason people complain
about "stealing" the thread: if you just reply to an existing message
and then change the subject, most mail clients (TB included) will
somehow consider it still part of the previous thread, and keep it as
so. Although his can potentially cause confusion, this is a good
feature, if used right.

*However*, I have to admit. I recently moved to GMail, and noticed
that GMail doesn't seem to be intelligent enough in this case: If you
change the subject line, it creates a new "conversation". Anyways,
this is a GMail *bug*, not a feature. I still like to see the [SOLVED]
note inthe subject. If GMail creates another conversation from it,
this is something to take to GMail developers, because it's plain
*wrong*.

BTW, is there a "bugzilla" for GMail?

> 
> What might be better is to suggest NOT changing subject lines and to
> know that if you happen to be looking at the archives, the end of the
> thread may have a solution for you.
> 

I think we could keep to only simple chages in the subject /line/, as
long as the message keeps the same /subject/ (general). Just don't
/steal/ the threads.


-- 
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Gustavo Seabra                 Graduate Student
Chemistry Dept.         Kansas State University
Registered Linux user number 381680
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If at first you don't succeed...
                              ...skydiving is not for you.