[tlug] Make GMail Follow Polysaturated Threads. (Was ... you know the drill)

["Joshua B." <juggins@example.com>]

On 1/18/06, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
>  gmail's deficiencies are *its users'* problems.  It
> is rude to try to impose the burden for their solution on non-users.
> Asking for help, yes.

And therefore I do greatly appreciate any help and encouragement to
deal those problems.  Today I submitted a 'suggestion' and a bug
report to Gmail.  I also posted the following new thread to the most
appropriate looking forum.  I'm cross-posting part of my comment in
case you have no interest in joining Google groups.  However anyone
who does so, and posts some endorments (or intelligent refinements) to
my thread will have my gratitude.

My post quotes three instances of Gmail documentation that stuck me as
reason not to give up hope of Gmail ever addressing this problem:

<crosspost  http://groups.google.com/group/GMusers/browse_thread/thread/b57a058a23de499d
>
Gmail's own online documentation also indicates that Gmail was
intended to follow this standard but for some reason have not achieved
it yet.

This is what Gmail says 'conversations' are:

> Gmail: Help Center Home > Messages & Conversations
> What are conversations?
> Gmail groups all replies with their original message, creating a conversation.

Not exactly.  At present Gmail groups all messages with identical
subject lines together regardless of whether they refer to eachother.

>Gmail: Help Center Home > Glossary
> Conversation
> An original message, and all of its replies (and replies to the replies).
> Sometimes, conversations are referred to as "threads." By organizing your mailbox in
> threads, it's easier to understand the context of a message -- or to follow the
> conversation.

The word 'threads'  has been in common currency for quite some time
before Gmail came along.  The above definition matches the common usage
quite well. However Gmail's actual behaviour does not.

Lastly Even the FAQ hints that GMAIL aspires towards standards
compliance.

> Help Center Home > Errors and General Issues
> Why are my messages improperly threaded?
> While we work out kinks in our 'Conversation' feature, some of your messages may not be included in the proper conversations. At this time, you can't manually merge or separate messages from conversations. We're working hard to improve our service, and you can help us by sending us the message headers from any affected conversations.
> Here's how to find headers:
>    1. Open a message.
>    2. Click 'More options.'
>    3. Click 'Show original.'
>    4. Copy everything from 'Delivered-To:' through the 'References:' line.

The fact that they mention the References header certainly implies to
me that the developers recognize that it should play an important role
in grouping messages.

</crosspost>