Mac Oglesby noticed an occasional hiccup in message threading in one of the archives. I've added a FAQ entry explaining how this can occur, and with Mac's blessing I am forwarding our discussion to gossip.
Cheers, Jeff ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mac Oglesby Date: Nov 17, 2005 6:15 AM Subject: Re: Curious archive threading Hi Jeff, Thanks for your efforts. I had suspected that a possible cause of the "strange" threading might be some action taken by the message author. If fact, I had written to a few of the message originators asking them to recall if they had done anything which might possibly have involved a message outside of the main thread. In two of three cases there was no reply. The one who did respond seemed a bit annoyed at the question (perhaps thinking I was was accusing him of wrong-doing) and said he created his message "in the usual way," whatever that means. Glancing back over the thread index of the Sundial Mailing List, I see numerous examples of curious threading, and in each case it would be easy to imagine that a message author had used Reply in a manner which might confuse the threading process. At a guess, I don't believe a large percentage of those who use email regularly know anything about the message ID system. Since normally only a small part of an email message is displayed for reading, most users have no idea of how large the entire message package really is, and how much information is there besides the plain text. Until recently, that was my condition also. Thanks for the courtesy of asking about posting this on Gossip. I have no problem with that, as there are no personal disclosures involved. A FAQ entry would be a good idea, IMO. Best wishes, Mac >Ok, I took a look: > >Message #11372 is the one about the Mars Sundial. Inside the >email message, it has the following header that gives it a unique >identification - which is use to distinguish this email from all >other emails in the world, past, present, and future. > >Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Message #11373 is about helichronometers. It refers to the >#11372 using a the References: header. The references header >is placed by the Mail User Agent (in this case, Outlook Express), >typically when someone hits "Reply" > >References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >What almost certainly happened is the author of #11373 >hit reply to message #11372, then manually changed the subject >line to match some other conversation. The threading subsystem >had to choose whether to go with the references embedded in the >message headers, or to track the subject line. It went with the >references because that is usually more reliable. Essentially the >system tracked "who hit Reply to what" in this case. > >Bottom line: > >This problem will happen whenever someone hits reply to one thread, >then manually changes the subject line to match another. Most >threading systems (including those built into Mail User Agents) >will probably make the same mistake when this happens. I don't >think it makes sense to change anything in The Mail Archive's >algorithms, but it may make sense to add a FAQ entry. > >Let me know if this clarifies the sitaution. Also, I would like to CC >this message to gossip if you are ok with that, as it is of general >interest. > >-Jeff > >======================= > >Hi Jeff, > >When the Sundial Mailing List archive is viewed by thread, these 6 >messages (URLs below) seem to be organized in an unexpected manner. >Except for my message about the Mars sundial (#11372), they all deal >with Southern hemisphere heliochronometers. > >Can you help me understand this curious threading? > >Thanks, > >Mac > > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11374.html > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11375.html > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11377.html > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11372.html > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11373.html > >http://www.mail-archive.com/sundial%40rrz.uni-koeln.de/msg11376.html _______________________________________________ Discussion list for The Mail Archive Gossip@jab.org http://jab.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gossip
