A reason for threading errors in Mail.app

Dennis Brown see3d at writeme.com
Thu Jun 9 17:11:02 EDT 2005


Dan,

In any normal use of mail and replies between two parties this would  
be a good feature.  On a list like this one, I wish I could turn this  
feature off.  I do know who read which thread and cloned a new one  
though.  However, I am not sure what I can do with that piece of  
trivia.  I no longer make a new thread that way, now I start with a  
new message and drag/drop the to: field.  I am curious, did the  
previous/this message show up in a different thread in your mail.   
You can tell which thread I cloned this from by the mail body reference.

Dennis

On Jun 9, 2005, at 4:48 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:

> Dennis...
>
> Thanks for the detective work. I think this is the reason for  
> *some* of the errors I see, but perhaps not all. Although it's  
> possible the fingerprinting is so deep and smart that it is indeed  
> too smart for its own good.
>
> I wonder why Apple doesn't acknowledge this bug.
>
> No, I don't. They'd call it a feature.
>
> On Jun 9, 2005, at 1:30 PM, Dennis Brown wrote:
>
>
>> Dan and Mac Mail.app users and anyone who replies to messages,
>>
>> I have noticed that Mail.app seems to put seemingly unrelated  
>> threads into an existing thread at times.  I think I see a  
>> possible explanation for this.  In addition to the usual method of  
>> looking at the subject text, I think mail.app also fingerprints  
>> messages somehow, so it knows when a reply is to that message -- 
>> even if the subject line is altered.  So if somebody starts a new  
>> thread by replying to a thread I started or replied to, just to  
>> get the header info, then replaces the body and subject lines to a  
>> new topic, my Mail.app assumes it is still related to the original  
>> message.  I just tested out this theory by replying to a thread I  
>> started, but I changed everything about the message except the To:  
>> line.  Sure enough the message came back threaded to the unrelated  
>> message I started it from.
>>
>> A case of too smart for its own good!
>>
>> Dennis
>>
>> On May 23, 2005, at 11:55 AM, Dan Shafer wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> Howard.....
>>>
>>> I thought I was the only one experiencing this problem. I've  
>>> posted messages on two or three OS X message boards and haven't  
>>> had a single reaction or response.
>>>
>>> Threads seem to collect unrelated messages more or less at random.
>>>
>>> But it's still better for me than the old way.
>>>
>>> On May 23, 2005, at 4:45 AM, Howard Bornstein wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I used to do that but I really don't like the way Mail does  
>>>> threading.
>>>> It never really works on my Mac.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> Dan Shafer, Co-Chair
>>> RevConWest '05
>>> June 17-18, 2005, Monterey, California
>>> http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit/RevConWest
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> use-revolution mailing list
>>> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dan Shafer, Co-Chair
> RevConWest '05
> June 17-18, 2005, Monterey, California
> http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit/RevConWest
>
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>



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