[Mailman-Users] Threading for integration with message board

[Mark Sapiro]

Robert Hsiung wrote:
>
>Do any of you know of an easy way to organize email into threads? 


Not necessarily easy, but see <http://www.jwz.org/doc/threading.html>.


>My first idea was to use Mailman, with the message board based on the 
>threaded archives, but Mailman doesn't actually seem to do a great 
>job of threading, plus I'm afraid I'd need to learn Python (what I'm 
>comfortable with is Perl).


Mailman's archives are threaded based on the Message-ID: of one post
being in either the In-Reply-To: or References: header (or both) of a
subsequent post.

This is an incomplete solution fo a number of reasons including:

1) Not all MUAs include either a In-Reply-To: or References: header in
replies.

2) People 'hijack' threads by creating a new post as a reply to a
previously received post.

3) Replies to posts in 'plain' format digests won't be threaded even if
they have a proper Subject:.

4) A direct recipient of a post which is delayed in reaching the list
can post a reply which reaches the list before the original. In this
case the reply isn't threaded even after the original arrives.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan