Thread hijacking (i.e. don't use reply unless you are REALLY replying)

[Magnus Therning]

On Fri, Dec 17, 2004 at 06:59:53PM -0500, Nathan Sprangers wrote:
>On Fri, 2004-12-17 at 19:03 +0100, Magnus Therning wrote:
>> FYI:
>> 
>>  When starting a new thread don't just reply to a message sent by
>>  someone else and clear the subject line. Not all e-mail and news
>>  clients behave like yours and will thread messages correctly based on
>>  the "Message-ID:", "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" headers embedded in
>>  the messages. Only programs which don't comply with Internet standards
>>  sort messages by subject and call that "threading". When you simply
>>  change the subject of a message, all of the threading information
>>  remains intact and your new "thread" simply continues at the end of the
>>  old one. This is called thread hijacking.
>> 
>>  By doing this, you're shooting yourself in the foot twice over. First
>>  of all, people following a thread don't want to see unrelated messages
>>  cropping up in the middle of it. The most complacent will just delete
>>  your message without reading it, others will killfile you, some having
>>  complained to you asking you to learn how to post. Secondly, those who
>>  aren't interested in the hijacked thread and who have set their
>>  programs to ignore it won't even see your message.
>> 
>>  If you want to start a new thread then use your mailer's/newsreader's
>>  "New Message" function. This will start a fresh thread of your own
>>  without any traces of previous threads.
>> 
>> Taken from the page:
>> 
>>  http://linux.sgms-centre.com/misc/netiquette.php
>
>Thank you for posting this.  I'm using Evolution as my mail client and
>for the longest time I thought that this was a bug in its thread view!
>I've added a short synopsis of this to the ListiQuette wiki page.  If
>there are others who have not read the other parts of this wiki page I
>encourage you to visit http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/ListiQuette.

Good. I have to say I am really impressed with the reception of my
email. Before posting it I worried a bit about being seen as a whiny
know-it-all, but it seems all people here are friendly. Of course it
also helps that quite a few have expressed support :-)

I haven't read the Wiki page, yet, but I sure will.

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                    (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
magnus at therning.org
http://magnus.therning.org/

Software is not manufactured, it is something you write and publish.
Keep Europe free from software patents, we do not want censorship
by patent law on written works.

The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is unlikely to
survive the next 25 years. Legally and financially yes, but not stucturally
and economically.
     -- Peter Drucker
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