CentOS - Apr 2009 - Threading and CentOS mailing list digest

Kai Schaetzl <maillists at conactive.com> wrote:
> John R Pierce wrote on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:34:49 -0700:
>> > odder, I don't see a "In-Reply-To:" header, so I
dunno HOW it appears
>> > threaded just fine.
>>     
>
> It's been put in the thread according to the time sequence because the 
> header you mention is missing. So, it just *appears* to be threaded, but 
> the node where it gets put as a reply is random (here it is put as a reply 
> to me, that is why I noticed there is something wrong). That header is 
> missing from all of David's postings, now that I look, and he's
been using
> several older versions of Thunderbird which can't all be broken. So, I 
> assume he's using a broken mail gateway which strips these headers.
>
> Kai
Rather than continue to hijack the original thread regarding dual 
booting, let's move this discussion to it's own thread. 

The version of T-Bird I use is *always* the current version for CentOS.  
My mailer is sendmail again kept to the current version for CentOS.  I 
somehow doubt that either are broken. 

What is happening is I get the CentOS mailing list in digest form.  That 
is, I get one e-mail each day with all of the previous day's posts.  If 
I notice a topic that I feel I can contribute to, I cut and paste an 
appropriate e-mail from the digest and "reply" to the list setting the
subject appropriately (i.e., "Re: <original subject>).  This is
somewhat
of a pain but it is more than made up for by the convenience of getting 
the list traffic in digest form.

Your complaint is the first I've heard that this creates a problem for 
anyone.  Unfortunately, I don't see a way to set the "in reply to"
mail
header element though T-Bird.  If anyone has a reasonable (meaning 
doesn't take significantly more of my time than my current approach) 
alternative, I'm more than wiling to change how I'm posting.  Giving up 
getting the list traffic in digest form is not acceptable.

Cheers,
Dave

-- 
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce

David G. Miller wrote:
> What is happening is I get the CentOS mailing list in digest form.  That 
> is, I get one e-mail each day with all of the previous day's posts.  If
> I notice a topic that I feel I can contribute to, I cut and paste an 
> appropriate e-mail from the digest and "reply" to the list
setting the
> subject appropriately (i.e., "Re: <original subject>).  This is
somewhat
> of a pain but it is more than made up for by the convenience of getting 
> the list traffic in digest form.
> 
> Your complaint is the first I've heard that this creates a problem for 
> anyone.  Unfortunately, I don't see a way to set the "in reply
to" mail
> header element though T-Bird.  If anyone has a reasonable (meaning 
> doesn't take significantly more of my time than my current approach) 
> alternative, I'm more than wiling to change how I'm posting. 
Giving up
> getting the list traffic in digest form is not acceptable.
not sure, but can't you reply to individual messages if your digest is 
in MIME (rather than plain text)?

David G. Miller wrote:
> Kai Schaetzl <maillists at conactive.com> wrote:
> 
> What is happening is I get the CentOS mailing list in digest form.  That 
> is, I get one e-mail each day with all of the previous day's posts.  If
> I notice a topic that I feel I can contribute to, I cut and paste an 
> appropriate e-mail from the digest and "reply" to the list
setting the
> subject appropriately (i.e., "Re: <original subject>).  This is
somewhat
> of a pain but it is more than made up for by the convenience of getting 
> the list traffic in digest form.
> 
> Your complaint is the first I've heard that this creates a problem for 
> anyone.  Unfortunately, I don't see a way to set the "in reply
to" mail
> header element though T-Bird.  If anyone has a reasonable (meaning 
> doesn't take significantly more of my time than my current approach) 
> alternative, I'm more than wiling to change how I'm posting. 
Giving up
> getting the list traffic in digest form is not acceptable.
I avoid the problem by accessing this list via the mail-to-news gateway
on news.gmane.org and suspending the list email delivery entirely.  All
the messages are threaded, I don't have to store the old messages in a
thread for future reference, and the only time a message shows up in my
email inbox is when someone responds with "reply all" (or one of the
occasional "I am away" responses) to one of my postings.  It makes
life
on this list much more pleasant.

The only one-time hiccup is that the first time you use "Reply" via
the
Gmane news server you will have to respond to a confirmation message in
your email.  Thereafter, your replies (in that newsgroup) go straight
through, just like this one does for me.

-- 
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                 Do NOT delete it.

David G. Miller wrote on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:39:50 -0600:
> What is happening is I get the CentOS mailing list in digest form.
Ah, that explains it. Other people usually just reply to the digest (which 
then creates a new thread with "Digest" in the subject) or add a note
that
they replied to a digest.
> Giving up 
> getting the list traffic in digest form is not acceptable.
I'm trying to understand what you mean by this statement. I've never
used
digests and I've never understood why one would want to use them. I imagine 
it may have been helpful in the past to cut down on the byte flow, so that 
one didn't exceed the monthly traffic allowance or so. But nowadays? Maybe 
if you are receiving mail on a mobile device and still pay by the byte.
Then I read Robert's reply "I avoid the problem" (which problem? I
thought)
and "the only time a message shows up in my email inbox". 
I'm coming to the conclusion that you are simply not utilizing the assets 
of your mail program very well? All modern mail programs allow you to 
create your own folder structure and create "rules" that filter the
in- and
out-going mail to a folder of your choice. You do not have to have one 
"inbox" at all. I filter all incoming mail to the folder it belongs
to.
There is a "general" folder that gets everything that falls thru -
which is
rare.
I have my own folder substructure for mailing lists. All mail from or to 
the centos-users mailing list goes to a folder named "CentOS" in this 
structure, where I also have "CentOS-Announce",
"CentOS-Virt" and, for
instance, "Dovecot" or "Xen".
When I have some time I open the folder and look thru the mails, if I don't 
have time I don't. At times I didn't look in it for months. I don't
even
recognize that mail is coming in until I want to see it. 
I surely wouldn't want to mix these mails with my private or business mail 
(which is also organized in dozens of folders).
And I surely don't want to skim a long digest for the very few postings 
that are of interest to me. The advantage of getting mail in single mail 
format is that you can easily set flags for deletion or ignoring or keeping 
(!) and that you can distinguish by the subject if you are interested in it 
or not. Reading thru the whole digest for interesting content occurs like a 
big waste of time to me.

Anyway, do as you like, but it might be helpful, if you somehow indicate 
you reply to a digest. Then one doesn't have to guess why you reply to the 
wrong message.

Kai

-- 
Kai Sch?tzl, Berlin, Germany
Get your web at Conactive Internet Services: http://www.conactive.com