Re: Putting important stuff exclusively in the subject [was: is it imminent that bookworm becomes stable?]

[dmacdoug <dmacdoug@usc.edu>]

On Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 01:26:32PM +0800, hl wrote:
> 
> ,  i still don't know who can read mail body but can't read subject at same
> time
> 
> what do you think if i copy/paste subject to beginning of mail body to
> comply with such unwritten rule?
> 
It's not that readers can't see both the message and the subject line at 
the same time, it's more a matter of expectations.  

There are a large number of ways to read messages from the list.  I happen
to use Mutt and so I see a list of senders, subject lines, etc.  Once I
highlight a certain line and hit enter, I see the message, and 99% of the
time I read a coherent message or question, but occasionally it I might read
something like "i always use stable, Thanks!" and I wonder what that means. 
The subject line is now buried among about 8 or 10 header lines at the top
and I need to search through them if, per chance, the real question might be
there.

Then, even more importantly, if I should want to answer the question, I
would first have to copy and paste the question from the subject line into the
body before answering it, whereas if you had asked the question in the body
of the message, Mutt would take care of all the niceties for me like putting
the date, time and author of the message, followed by the question itself.

Most people's questions are too long to fit on the subject line so they 
aren't tempted to leave it out of the body.

I, for one would write the complete message in the body, then put the
question if it's that short, or a reasonable synopsis of it into the subject
line.

Don