Changing back to "Re:Remove ehci_hcd"

[Cameron Simpson]

On 13Jul2011 15:33, redhat <redhat at billoblog.com> wrote:
| On Wed, 13 Jul 2011, Rick Stevens wrote:
| >Also do not reply to a thread and then change the subject to try to
| >create a new thread.  That doesn't work.  You must create a new thread
| >by creating a new message--not a reply.  Doing this sort of thing breaks
| >message threading in mail clients.
| >
| >The only time it's proper to change the subject of a thread is to make
| >it more descriptive such as "Solved:".
| 
| That's odd.  I subscribe to a number of message lists on a number of
| subjects, and the issue is usually just the opposite -- that there is
| thread drift and nobody bothers to relabel the subject line appropriately.
| On those lists, folk complain because people *don't* change the subject
| line...

Well, Rick did do just that - kept the thread, adjusted/corrected to
subject line.

But a new thread is not quite the same as thread drift.

With thread drift, as with any drifting conversation, at some point the
content of that branch becomes different enough to warrant a new subject,
but it can be useful to stay in the thread so that people following the
discussion stay tuned in.

A new thread is appropriate for an _unrelated_ new post. The new post
has no history, and should _not_ be associated with the preceeding
replies. Even in thread drift it is sometimes appropriate to start a new
thread if the drift is overt and large, eg "that makes me think of this
other topic!"

This is all helped by decent mail and news readers, which know about
the thread structure from the In-Reply-To or References headers, which
are automatically maintained by the reply/followup functions in mail
and news readers.

What Rick is objecting to is the common practice of mail neophytes who
want to make a new thread. _Unaware_ that a good mail reader will
present threaded content, and probably offer ways to persistently kill
or jighlight threads of disinterest or interest, they just _reply_ to a
list post and perhaps changes the subject line. I suspect it is a
consequence of having all their email in one inbox, or using unthreaded
mailers, or reading too many groups through crude web interfaces.

At any rate, these people don't start a new thread, they hijack an
existing one as a easy way to get the right list posting address, and do
not realise the nasty consequences: it pollutes the existing discussion
and can also bury their new topic in a larger discussion (especially well
buried with respect to readers who have told the mailers to junk that
particular thread, but who may have been interested in the new topic).

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Thousands of years ago the Egyptians worshipped cats as gods.
Cats have never forgotten this. - David Wren-Hardin <bdh4 at quads.uchicago.edu>