Mail List Posting Guidelines

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

Mail List Posting Guidelines
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Rule:
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When you start a new discussion Subject, do NOT hit "Reply" with
an unrelated message displayed on-screen! Use instead your
address book, and pull up a fresh copy of
"To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx"

Why?
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Threading is enormously useful in the organization of a message
archive: if you don't understand what I mean, see any of the
annual "Threads in Alphabetic|Chronological Order" indices at
XySearch (http://users.datarealm.com/xywwweb/xysearch.cgi). While
preparing the XySearch archives for online use, I've encountered
frequent errors in "Threads", especially NEW threads --
completely new, unrelated Subjects -- that commence in the middle
of old threads but have absolutely NOTHING to do with them, and
thus render the original thread misleading or meaningless or
wantonly meandering. Here are the reasons, and tips for future
behavior (pertinent not only to the XyWrite mail list, but to
newsgroup postings or any mail list):

Background
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Every message posted on the Internet is assigned a unique
"Message-Id". If you look into the complete (but usually hidden)
Header of *every* Email message, you will find a line that says,
e.g.:
 Message-Id: 

Search engines like XySearch use Message-Ids in two ways: 1) to
prevent indexing the same message more than once, even if it
appears under different filenames; and 2) to create threads.

Here's the Important Part
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When you hit the Reply button with an old (existing) message
displayed, information from that currently displayed message is
automatically entered into the new Reply message: a field called
"In-Reply-To" is ALWAYS created in the new message, which
contains the Message-Id of the currently-displayed message, e.g.:
 In-Reply-To: 
Additionally, if a field called "References:" (consisting of one
or more old Message-Ids, and representing a cumulative list of
consecutive "Replies") exists in the old message, it is copied
verbatim into the new Reply, and the Message-Id of the current
message is then added to this list.

  These two Header fields -- "In-Reply-To" and "References" --
  are the basis of Threading. All Email clients create them,
  and all search engines use these two fields to construct
  Threads.

The Problem
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Lots of people (I'm a HUGE offender) hit the "Reply"
button|keystroke to utilize an existing message from CCAT
(xywrite@xxxxxxxx) as a *TEMPLATE*, not only to Reply
To an old message (the proper use of the "Reply" button), but to
generate a new message with a NEW Subject.

  Because your new message is automatically sent to the same
  address as the current message, it seems convenient to
  simply hit Reply and then change the Subject...

**BUT** it makes a total mess of Threading! Email clients DO NOT
BASE THREADS ON THE "SUBJECT"! They base threads on Message-Ids
found in the "In-Reply-To" and "Reference" fields. There are
legitimate uses for this: you can change the Subject,
if the matter under discussion has modulated slightly, and yet
still maintain your posting within the old thread, as long
as In-Reply-To is coded in the header -- very useful at times.

That's the crux of it. When you start a new Subject discussion,
do NOT hit Reply! Instead, use your address book and pull up a
fresh copy of
"To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx"
-- or type the CCAT address in manually -- so that no
"In-Reply-To" or "Reference" field is created in the new message.
Alternatively, if you use a sophisticated Emailer that can
display the Headers, simply delete the "In-Reply-To" and
"Reference" fields before hitting "Send".

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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