[HIJACKED!] What are the best OSS discussion group apps?

[Bart Silverstrim]

Liam Proven wrote:
> On 14/01/2008, Wulfy <wulfmann at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
>> Liam Proven wrote:
>>> Gmail is an excellent tool for handling mailing lists; I have been
>>> using it for three years for more than 30 different lists which it
>>> handles with great aplomb. It is fast, efficient and easy and has
>>> reduced the number of emails I download on my main account by
>>> something like 1000 messages a day at peak. It works /brilliantly/ for
>>> mailing lists and its threading is superb; indeed, it is smart enough
>>> to start a new thread when someone starts a new conversation by
>>> changing a subject line, which it appears many people's programs can't
>>> do.
>>>
>>>
>> If it is smart enough to start a new thread when the subject is changed,
>> why did it leave the message IDs of the previous thread in, which is the
>> way most e-mail clients thread?
> 
> What else would you suggest it did? Change the message headers of
> stuff it receives? I'm perfectly happy with the way it actually
> worked; I cannot see any way it could be better. There are details of
> the user interface that I'd change, but by and large, its threading
> and filtering are 1st rate.

Clients that support "PROPER" threading don't group messages by subject 
line.  They do it by a header like "list-id".  That way the thread is 
properly grouped and ignores when the subject line is altered in some 
small way (adding "RE:", or some other small alteration, or when people 
take the thread in another direction that is still related to the topic.)

What "noobs" like to do if they're not willing to take ten seconds to 
properly address a message is just "reply" to an existing one then 
change the subject line, thus embedding an irrelevant topic into a 
thread about something else altogether because their irrelevant message 
carries the wrong list-id.

At best you annoy people. At worst you ask for help about something and 
embed it into a topic that someone who could and would be willing to 
help you with is ignoring because the topic you hid it in is one they 
have no interest in dealing with.

I don't use gmail, but I have heard this complaint on this and other 
lists.  Your tone is rather hostile over a topic that I don't think you 
fully understood; this will no doubt ruffle more feathers than necessary.

> But this isn't very germane to Ubuntu!

No, but it is relevant to etiquette in using the Ubuntu (or just about 
any) mailing list for help or interaction with other users.