In a previous thread, that I and others were totally corrupting by
posting how not to do exactly what we were doing, Mike S replied to me...
On 4/12/2011 1:53 PM, Mike S wrote:
> At 04:03 PM 4/12/2011, Rex wrote...
>> Email message headers contain a thread-index number. Any decent
email program groups the messages into threads using
> > this (normally hidden) information.
>
> The Thread-Index: header (and Thread-Topic:) is a completely
proprietary, non-standard header created by Microsoft.
> From that, "decent email program" does not follow.
>
> The correct header to use is References:, as defined in RFC 1036 (and
RFC 2822), and to a lesser extent, In-Reply-To:, which is a mess.
>
> But, since both References: and In-Reply-To: were very loosely
defined when originally created in RFC 822, threading is, and always
will be,
> unreliable.
>
> The OP apparently replied to an existing message and put a new
subject in. His MUA put in fresh Thread-*: headers, and handled
> References: and Reply-To: properly. Your MUA used the updated
References and/or Reply-To to place that message into an existing thread.
>
> None of that is unreasonable, none of it violates standards, yet it
breaks threading, because support for threading was never properly
> specified to begin with. Pointing fingers at someone is misplacing
blame, and pissing into the wind, too.
>
OK. Please forgive me. I gave the wrong explanation of what part of the
email headers causes a REPLY message with a new subject, to still show
up in the original thread. People responding to that misplaced message
(like we just did) corrupt the intent of the original poster and can
make the original message become lost, dissipated or irrelevant. --
Sorry, Joe.
I still suggest that the simple solution is to be aware not to use REPLY
to an existing message when writing a new post that has no relationship
to the message you are replying to. Changing the subject field seems
logical but is insufficient because of header information.
I don't think that pointing that out is, "misplacing blame," or "pissing
into the wind."
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