Hi, On Sun, Mar 02, 2025 at 12:18:36AM +0000, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote: > [SOLVED] "Can't configure network on Debian - please advise" > > would make it a lot easier to find answers on some of the longer > threads concerning problems. As ever, opinions may vary and i'd like > to know what others feel.
I used to agree with you until I was told that the gmail web interface completely separates any such message from the rest of its thread as soon as the subject line changes. In some degree of disbelief I checked this and found it to be true. So what you are advocating is that users of the most popular email interface in use on this list will potentially need to see a whole set of mails about something and then — possibly much further down in their mailbox — see one mail with "SOLVED" prepended to it, completely divorced from the thread it relates to. That does not seem to be a useful user experience to me: The "SOLVED" message won't be anywhere near the rest of the thread. It does however help for the list's archives, since Debian's web archive and that of every archive I've ever seen does a better job of threading than gmail does. Every time this comes up, some feel inclined to say that users of the gmail web interface deserve everything they get for choosing to use such a poorly-designed service, but you do not strike me as such a person. After finding out just how badly gmail works I now reserve subject line changes only for when the content of the email has drifted far enough away from the original subject line so as to be about a totally different thing. It cannot be used to draw attention to some nuance of the original topic. Thanks, Google. Thanks, Andy -- https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. — John Levine
