Thread Stealing [was Installing MP3 for Amarok? How?]

[Ian Malone]

On 11/01/2008, Dan Thurman <dant at cdkkt.com> wrote:

<replied-to messages have headers indicating their relation to
existing threads>

> Hmm.  I wonder if what is happening is that since I do not have a mailing
> address list yet for this email client, what I do from time to time is to
> reply to a random thread, clear the subject and body fields, and begin a new
> subject/body message and then fire it away.
>
> Wow.
>
> I had ASSUMED that I had a blank slate.  I guess what you see is not what you
> get?  Is this what is happening?  If so, this is mind-blowing for me as I did
> this unconsciously while focusing on what I wanted to write.
>

That's exactly what's happening.  It's a useful feature, and lets you
follow the thread history even as the subject starts to drift.  But most
modern clients don't show you this information (even old usenet
clients made it hard to get at, and most modern programs like
Thunderbird focus on simplicity rather than control).  I'm sure many
people have pointed out the drawbacks for the poster of thread
hijacking, for what it's worth I use a threaded view and skip most
threads based on the subject (argues for an engaging subject line
too).

> So, I guess I MUST initiate/create a NEW message, and either type in the To:
> field or get it from the address book?  Don't just grab a thread and create a
> new message.  Wow.
>

As a Thunderbird user typically I just start typing in the "To:" field and
then use Thunderbird's auto-complete after a few characters.  TB also
lets you click on any of the To/From/CC addresses in the message
display to start a new message to that address.  I assume KMail can
do the latter.  It may not do the former which is a useful trick of TB's
(basically an automatically extended address book), though very
upsetting on a Windows machine when your Windows profile goes
kamikaze for the nth time and you lose it.

-- 
imalone