Re: [libreoffice-design] Migrating from Mail Listing to Forum

Hi Paulo, all,

Paulo José schrieb:
> Hi all,
>
> I think any proposal to remove the mail listing to use just the forum
> is impossible and this discussion is totally unnecessary. :/

It is not unnecessary - we need to find the best way to handle our tasks.

And this means to re-evaluate the options from time to time.

If somebody could spend some time to collect the different pros and cons
together with the needs and workflows on a wiki page, this would
probably lead to a resource we (not only Design, but the entire
community - especially the Website Team) could use for any iteration in
future.
> What I'm proposing, *again*, is just "lets keep both ways"... We
> actually can do that, it is *not* a binary choice. :)

If we don't start to spread information even more than today, I'm all
for it.
> Bernhard, maybe you could help me with these issues:

Andy already replied to some points, but I try to show you how I do it
> 1. How to put all related emails in an only thread? Everyday a new
> email from an old threat appears in the mail listing as a new thread,
> creating duplicate threads. It make the search for a specific email a
> painful task.

There are two points to mention:

a) Sometimes people use mail clients that don't provide the thread
information in the mail's headers, so there is no direct relation
between the split thread. This is more likely for webmail and mobiles,
but I can't solve this problem.
Some mail clients create a thread by comparing the subject, if there is
no thread info, but this doesn't work with modified mail subjects.

b) I read about Gmail problems with threads once or twice in the past.
It seems that Gmail doesn't use the thread info in the headers, but only
relies on the subject. As different mail clients add [Re:] and the list
name in several orders, each of them might be looked at as a new thread
by Gmail.

> 2. How to link for an specific thread in a easy way. Currently, I
> need go to the mail listing website and search manually for the
> thread. There's no way to link an email message.

Linking to a thread is not as easy as linking to a mail.
As Andy already told you, the archive information is part of the
headers, so it can be found there quite easily with an email client
allowing to show and hide the full headers with a click.

To find the thread, you need to go to the web archive (you can just
follow the link in the header) and find a link to the thread. In
mail-archive.com (where the link goes to) you might just copy the link
at the left upper corner reading "Thread
".
> 3. How can I see my own messages in my mail Inbox, together with the
>  thread? (How it should suppose to be). Sometimes its annoying to see
> a reply to an your message that is not there.

This is truly a Gmail problem. I don't know any other mail client
hiding your own message from the thread.

But in the Gmail Options there should be a tick mark to avoid this
behavior (I might be wrong - perhaps you'll have to Google for help.

> 4. How to see a only thread in a plain view (not like a tree view).
> Sometimes the order of answers in the tree view just not make sense.

Here with my mail client (SeaMonkey, Thunderbird should be quite
similar) I like the tree view very much, because I read the mails in the
"right" order.

If I don't like this order, I copy the subject in the search line
(provided that the subject didn't change during the thread) and get a
list of mails with this subject in the order I like (date, sender, etc).

I don't need this option very often, but in seldom cases it helps.
> All these issues could be solved integrating the mail listing to a
> forum. We could create any restrictions to made both compatible.

Most of these issues are similar (if not even better) solvable with a
good mail client.

You wrote that you use Thunderbird, so I suggest to have this archive as
the main resource, because it is much easier to use and configure than
Gmail.

For your questions:

1. Did you have a look at the threads in Thunderbird?
In my experience with SeaMonkey, more than 90% of the mails are threaded
correctly (there might be one or two sub-threads, but they are found
easily, as you can expand and close all the thread by just typing "*"
and "\".

2. SeaMonkey/Thunderbird shows only the main headers (4 lines) in
standard behavior. If you "show all" (via menu), this area is extended
to eight lines. You need to scroll down the header area until you find
the entry "Archived-At:". Make sure that you remove the "<" and ">" 
signs from the link when you copy&paste it, because the closing bracket 
would cause a wrong link.

3. is standard behavior

4. already replied to above.

We didn't talk about filters yet.

Please have a look at the filters option in Thunderbird. You can send 
some mails to different folders, add marks (e.g. if your name is 
mentioned in the text), delete unwanted mails directly and many more.

I have filters for the different mailing lists, allowing me to see on 
the first sight, how many new mails have been posted since my last visit 
in any of the mailing lists.
This is done by creating a filter for the header entry "Reply-to": If it 
fits to the list's mail address, the mail is moved in the corresponding 
folder.

You can create filter for all kind of header entries (just add a new 
item at th bottom of the listbox), strings in subject or body and many 
additional possibilities...

Hope it helps a bit...

Best regards

Bernhard

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