Re: [edk2-devel] [PATCH v1 2/6] ArmVirtPkg: Add Platform CI and configuration for Core CI

["Laszlo Ersek" <lersek@redhat.com>]

Hi Sean,

On 04/15/20 21:31, sean.brogan via [] wrote:

> My corporate mail server changes the subject line which also destroys
> threading so I figured this was better.  Maybe not as i have no
> control over the CC/To lines of the email that is sent.   Do Bret's
> responses which add "[External]" (example here:
> https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/57377) (
> https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/57377 ) to every reply show up
> better (in groups.io web ui this is harder to follow since it starts
> a new thread)?

Thank you very much for providing Bret's email as an example!

Bret's answers in that thread, namely:

  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/57377
  https://edk2.groups.io/g/devel/message/57381

are well-threaded. Both in my personal list folder, as presented by my
MUA (Thunderbird), and also in e.g. the following (secondary) mailing
list archive:

  http://mid.mail-archive.com/CY4PR21MB074349715A82905EB420D7DBEFDA0@CY4PR21MB0743.namprd21.prod.outlook.com
  http://mid.mail-archive.com/CY4PR21MB07431322730AF342BF898A74EFDA0@CY4PR21MB0743.namprd21.prod.outlook.com

If you open each one of those "mail-archive.com" links in separate
browser windows or tabs, and scroll to the bottom of both pages, you'll
see that Bret's answer's are correctly threaded against the rest of the
messages in that discussion.

The subject line is not directly relevant for threading. Some MUAs use
the subject as a fallback option for reconstructing threads, but the
primary linkage for threading is the In-Reply-To header of the response
email -- which is supposed to reference the Message-Id header of the
original email.

So, for example, Rebecca's thread starter carried the header

  Message-ID: <62933ee8-7fb9-7cd3-08e5-6d6e7dac31e9@bsdio.com>

and Bret's reply correctly carried the header

  In-Reply-To: <62933ee8-7fb9-7cd3-08e5-6d6e7dac31e9@bsdio.com>

It doesn't matter (for threading) that Bret's infrastructure changed the
subject. Sometimes people intentionally change the subject line, while
staying in the same thread -- that signals that they go off on a
tangent, but still want to stay on topic a little (or else they want to
preserve the linkage to the original discussion). For example, the
original subject could be

  foo bar
    Re: foo bar
      Re: foo bar

and then someone could go off on a tangent (in the same thread!) like
this:

        quux [was: foo bar]
          Re: quux [was: foo bar]

So while the "[External]" stuff is not particularly useful or welcome,
regarding the list traffic, it is not a deal breaker. The threading does
remain correct. If the groups.io WebUI loses track of threading just
because of subject line changes, then that's a groups.io WebUI bug.

Bret's MUA also seems to correctly preserve CC's -- Rebecca's thread
starter CC'd Bob and Liming, and Bret's responses carry those CC's too.

If you could adopt Bret's way of interacting with the list, I think that
would be great!

Thanks!
Laszlo