Threading and digests

[Ric Werme]

First off, my apologies to the group for quoting the entire MIME section
of Ben's post.  It's normally bad netiquette, but important given the context.

Ben posted:
> --===============1489804417==
> Content-Type: message/rfc822
> MIME-Version: 1.0

> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> From: "Ben Scott" <dragonhawk at gmail.com>
> Precedence: list
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Cc: 
> To: gnhlug-discuss at gnhlug.org
> Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:44:21 -0400
> Message-ID: <155dc4110703280544n2b3e2e72xf660100f444608cb at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> Subject: Threading and digests (was: Dividing The List Considered Harmful)
> Message: 10

> On 3/27/07, Ric Werme <ewerme at comcast.net> wrote:
> > On the technical side, one problem with this list is that it's infeasible
> > for digest recipients to reply to a thread and preserve the thread
> > history ...

>   Switching your settings from "plain text" to a MIME digest will
> solve this problem for you (assuming you use a MIME-aware mail reader,
> and you like the format).  A MIME digest is basically an "attachment"
> which consists of a bunch of messages.  A good mail reader can reply
> to any one of them individually.  So you still get the mail delivered
> in a batch, in discrete units, and can read them similar to a plain
> text digest.

Umm, given that you're the list administrator, you might have done a
little research to see how I was subscribed.  It might have saved at least
two posts to this list.  I am already getting MIME encoded attachments.

>   If you don't use a MIME-aware mail reader, get one, it's the 21st
> century, man.  ;-)

Sorry, I've been earning my living from computers since 1969, I have a
lot of respect for 20th century tools.  Warn me before you upgrade this
to HTMl, XML and RSS so I can unsubscribe proactively.

I use exmh, rather clunky and with feet planted in both centuries.
I'm sort of thinking of sending group mail to a gnhlug directory
and reading it with nn, which I was quite fond last century.

So, I was under the impression that preserving the thread history
needed the "References:" line in the mail header.  Are you saying that
mailman can do it all with just the "Message-ID:" line?  I'll send
this with
"References: <155dc4110703280544n2b3e2e72xf660100f444608cb at mail.gmail.com>"
and see what happens.  Hmm, I do have mailman here at home, and even
set it up for a while.  Ah well, that would be research and if I did that
I wouldn't get anything posted today.  :-)

>   You can change your digest preferences by clicking the "listinfo"
> link at the bottom of any list message, and signing in with your email
> address at the bottom of the page.

Hmm, the edit page mentions:

Which topic categories would you like to subscribe to?

  By selecting one or more topics, you can filter the traffic on the mailing
  list, so as to receive only a subset of the messages. If a message matches
  one of your selected topics, then you will get the message, otherwise you
  will not.

  If a message does not match any topic, the delivery rule depends on the
  setting of the option below. If you do not select any topics of interest,
  you will get all the messages sent to the mailing list.

That I might read up on.  What do you know about it?  And does it apply
to digests?

> -- Ben

> -- 
> DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in the above are the personal opinions of the
> author, and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of GNHLUG, or
> any other person or organization.

No, no, the quoted mail headers really are what I got - honest!

> --===============1489804417==--

Gotta run - crisis just walked in.

  -Ric