New threads when subject line changes

[kfuchs]

Hi Gilby,

Why is a new thread started when a subject line is modified?

News readers follow the reference headers and thus do not start
a new thread when the subject line is changed.

Can this be changed so the reference headers are followed and
changes to the subject line ignored? If someone outside the
forums wants to start a new thread, they can delete all the reference
headers before posting.

Thank you,

Ken

[Gilby]

If the subject changes significantly (such as many of the ones you have done where you change it and put [was: blah blah]), then a new thread will be created. I did it this way as the most likely cause for someone to change the subject is if the topic has significantly changed. This is usually also in a long thread that drifted to a different topic. It also fixes the problem where some people (mostly newbies) on newsgroups like to hit reply to a message to create an entirely new topic where they really intended to create a new thread.

If I change anything, it would probably just be to create a link to the old thread, based on the references.

The way it works now has no effect on the newsgroup as any reply to a new thread will have the reference to that message that it is a reply to and therefore go in correctly in that thread.

[kfuchs]

Originally posted by Gilby

If I change anything, it would probably just be to create a link to the old thread, based on the references.


Gilby, thank you very much for the explanation. It makes perfect sense now.

A link to the parent thread sounds fine.

I'm also concerned about posters of the parent thread not finding the
child threads or not being notified by e-mail of a reply, because it
started a new thread. Are links from the parent thread to the child
threads also possible? I guess one could notify posters of the
parent thread who requested e-mail notification whenever a child
thread is created as well as a post to the parent thread itself.

Sincerely,

Ken

[Klaas Bil]

Originally posted by Gilby
The way it works now has no effect on the newsgroup as any reply to a new thread will have the reference to that message that it is a reply to and therefore go in correctly in that thread.
Not so here. Ken Fuchs has a habit of changing the subject line. Those replies come up in my newsreader (Free Agent 1.21/32) as new threads, with a subject line like
Re: Tandem unicycle (Two seat unicycle)

Conversely, if someone posts a new thread with a subject exactly the same as an existing thread, it is threaded with that existing thread. It seems that for threading, my newsreader looks at subject line only, not reference headers or whatever. It may be a setting.

Klaas Bil