question about (this) maillist(s)

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 22:04:45 +0000,
  Ronald Warsow <rwarsow at gmx.de> wrote:
> hallo
> 
> i have some questions how this mail list "management software (mailman ?, ...)" works:
> 
> 1. why is the timestamp in the mailheader changed ? sometimes ?
> 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2006-August/msg00496.html
> 
> sended at  Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:13:56 +0200 
> changed to Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:13:53 +0000

It looks like the mailing list replaces the date header with its own.
The variation in minutes is probably due to clock skew between your host
and the mailing list server (since it says it sent the message before you say
you did). The time zone is changed to GMT which is a fairly normal thing
to do.

> 
> (the mail arrived 1 minute later !)
> 
> 
> 2. what is the sort order or better on what criterion does the software manage/sort mails to the related subjects ?

That depends on your mail client. Different mail clients can sort on all sorts
of things. I find having a threaded view convenient.

> 
> sometime i can see that the software "guesses" this relation leading to entries like
> ...
> <Possible follow-ups>
> ...
> 
> 
> what is the technical background ?

This might be related to deeply nested threads where there isn't enough
information when viewing just a small amount of a thread to be sure the
messages you can see are all really part of the same thread.

> 
> hint:
> i send mail to the list via evolution by picking the subject and write "re:" or "Re:" in front of it;
> in contrast to download the whole list and doing a "Reply to Sender" from the evolution menu. 

That breaks threading. You shouldn't reply to existing messages to start new
threads or send messages that aren't replies but are intended to be.