Alex Harford <harford@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/15/05, Jinx <joecolquitt@clear.net.nz> wrote:
> > > > reply, change the subject and their message is displayed in the
> > > > middle of a wholly unrelated thread.
> > >
> > > But as you said, they changed the subject.  So they are starting
> > > a new thread.  I don't think I start new threads that way, but I
> > 
> > Hmmm, I can't appreciate what you see at your end Matthew. As
> > Olin says above, if you're replying to a post and strip out everything
> > except the To:piclist and type in a new subject - isn't that a new
> > thread ? 
> 
> No, because your mail client preserves some information that you
> probably don't see, that other mail clients (GMail, Mutt, etc) use as
> hints for threading... this way you can track threads even if the
> subject lines change.

Specificially, the "References:" line in the header, and possibly also the
"In-Reply-To:". If you're starting a new thread, these should be deleted,
but most mail clients don't even make you aware of their existence.

> Once again it's an MS thing that screws it up for other people that
> follow the specs. (Sigh... it's been a long day and I'm grumpy).

The References: chain is the *right* way to do threading, which allows
the Subject: line to mutate as needed as the thread progresses. Threading
based on the Subject: line alone is really lame.

-- Dave Tweed
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