OT: threading list messages

[coder at ibm.net]

On 05/11/97 at 04:31 PM, alexo at bigfoot.com (Alex Oren) said:

>ATTN list owner.

Got it.  

Writing as list owner:

>My email reader has problems keeping the list messages properly threaded.

>There are two reasons for this:

  1) Your reader ignored the (In-)Reply-To: headers.
  2) You reader is overly literal on threading by sibject.

>1. Appending "[MUD-Dev]" to the subject, and

Which is, theoretically a constant.  All messages have it prepended, so it
should not register a change.  

>2. The number of spaces between the "[MUD-Dev]" and the subject is not
>constant.

Actually its worse than that.  Certain mailers used by members insert
extra spaces, some insert TABs.  Steward processes them all, blindly.

>To add insult to injury, some subjects get truncated, embedded spaces
>multiply, etc. (switch to a fixed width font):

The truncation is the fault of severely broken mailers which ignore the
RFC's statements on handling line length.  I also note that they all seem
to be Windows based.  

>Now, I wouldn't mind exporting my message DB to a text file, running an
>AWK script or something similar on it to demangle the subjects and
>re-importing, but only if I have to do it once.  I do have a large number
>of messages and it is a lengthy process.

Ignoring the mailers which don't generate In-Reply-To: headers (which we
have thankfully few of on the list), In-Reply-To is the way to thread.

>Suggestions to JCL:

>* Remove the "[MUD-Dev]" artifact.  Filtering can be done on one of the 
>  following fields: X-Listname, To, Sender, Reply-To, Return-Path.

Noted.

>* Add some more preprocessing: remove leading "Re" prefixes, reduce
>embedded spaces, etc.

Noted.  Yup, this should be done.

Unfortunately nothing is going to happen very quickly.  I'm on a new
contract at SunSoft, and have a boat load of work that I have to get done
before a deadline in a fortnight.

Progress from there rests on a decision I'm going to be making as soon as
I get a chance, (I've got another kid due in a few more weeks as well, so
all bets are off).  I'm considering the possibilities of moving the list
to a different list processor as the home LAN here changes.  Steward has
served as well, but there are certain aspects that I really dislike about
it from an administration viewpoint (such as its handling of bounces).  It
may be time to move on.

Aside: If any of you have experience with other list processors, please
email evaluations to me directly.  I'm looking at a slew of possibilities
from (major/petit)domo, proclist, on down.

>Thanxalot!

Welcome.  Sorry if I've been a bit curt -- gotta go run and fight with a
firewall.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...