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Re: replying to an old list thread.



Ken Heard wrote:
> Sthu Deus wrote:
> > Good day.
> > 
> > I want to continue an old talk that once was on the list. How I can do
> > it? - How I can direct my reply to that very thread?
> 
> I seem to remember that sometime in the past people objected to an "old"
> thread being "reopened" by a new post to it.  So, three questions:

It seems strange to me that someone would object to something like
that.  I have a hard time thinking of a reason.

> 1.  Is it halal or kosher to reopen an "old" thread?

In my opinion it is okay.  If it is quite old then I usually refer to
an archive of the previous message by a URL so that people who have
not kept the older discussion thread can easily review it in the
archive if they care.  If it were two months ago I wouldn't do
anything special at all.  Things like this are a judgement call.

> 2.  How old is "old" should old be?  Three days?  Three months?  Three
> years?

If it were three months ago I would probably just include a URL to the
archive in the message as a nicety and not worry about it too much.
Three months is the blink of an eye on a mailing list.  But at the
same time the "'net has no memory" because people forget things so
quickly.

If it were three years ago then I would very likely simply open a new
message.  In the new message I would refer to the old message thread.
But then I would simply launch into the disussion about the same topic
but in the new message thread.  If it has been that long then I think
it would make sense to just start a new message.  If you were chatting
with your friends over lunch you would say something like, "Hey, you
know how in the old days we always talked about <topic> but never did
anything about it?  Well I am going to do something about it now."

> 3.  Does it really matter?

I wouldn't worry about it.

Bob

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