Skip to main content
Gerry | Vanagon
Checking account...
← vanagon.com home · Continue the discussion in the forum
Subject:Re: confusing subject lines
From:David Beierl
Date:Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:26:06 -0400

At 05:11 PM 6/22/2012, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>So, if what you guys are saying is correct, this should come to me
>under the old subject line, something about using the "reply"
>function?  hasn't seemed to be that way before.  but what do I
>know?  maybe not much.  I certainly got access to the subject line,
>and changed it, though Jim says otherwise.

There is a thread-id function in email headers that most people don't
know about because most email client programs ignore it.  It looks like this:
In-Reply-To:
<CAFnDXk11B0RxgTk+kdsCJGfQuxsbQTW-gjWah4J11ji6hHhxag@mail.gmail.com> OR
In-Reply-To:  <73467F28C4E04568851A8EBE3B59A7A4@customerPC>

The Bat is a good example of a mail client program that believes in
it.  It allows you to sort messages by thread, but it doesn't pay
attention to changes in the Subject: header.

A long time ago when I was first setting up to use gmail (I use it
primarily as a mail cache and an outgoing mail server I can reach
from anywhere, but never from the web interface), the web interface
specifically said that if you edited the subject line it would start
a new thread.  Apparently they've changed their policy on that.  And
if gmail is paying attention to threads I imagine it will be much
more in the public consciousness than before.

Yours,
David