Re: "solved" in message subject
On Fri, Apr 04, 2025 at 10:22:47AM +0700, Max Nikulin wrote:
> On 02/04/2025 05:17, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> > I see the changing of title or subject to add things like "SOLVED" is
> > not included in the FAQ.
>
> I am neutral to this recommendations. Just some considerations...
>
> I rarely use Gmail web UI, but this time I was curious enough to check its
> behavior.
>
Max,
Thank you very much for experimenting and actually providing some hard data.
> I would not recommend editing subject in Gmail web UI to add "solved".
> Sometimes In-Reply-To and References headers are lost. So there is no
> guarantee that the thread will not be broken. (Perhaps closing compose popup
> and resuming the draft later affects behavior. General impression is that it
> is rather fragile.)
>
OK, understood.
> When reading mail, minor subject changes like "solved" are hidden within a
> conversation. Subject is rendered once above messages. So efforts to mark a
> message may not be noticed.
>
> Again when reading mail, if subject is changed almost completely: "Old" to
> "New (was: Old)" to "New" with "(was: ...)" stripped by e.g. Thunderbird or
> Emacs; then the thread is split into 3 conversations, threading headers are
> not respected.
>
Bother - is that the fault of the MUA?
>
> "Solved" is never removed from subject, making it close to useless if the
> message caused continuation of discussion. In this sense messengers and web
> forums with their likes and thanks may be better to mark useful messages in
> long threads.
>
This is the real problem: threads here go on for months and years.
> Let's avoid discussions if gmail should be used. De-facto it is widely used,
> it has features and limitations. My point is that gmail users should be
> aware that some suggestions perfectly valid for other MUA should be avoided
> in the mail.google.com web application.
>
OK - So the monthly FAQ here says to change subjects / create a summary.
I think this probably came from reading the Debian Community Guidelines
originally from Enrico Zini at https://people.debian.org/~enrico/dcg/
It does not currently explicitly say "use SOLVED"
The Debian mailing list Code of Conduct does say to wrap at 80 characters
but says nothing about subject changes.
It *does* say to use common sense.
I'll take out the recommendation to change subjects as it stands and add a
note that changing subject can break certain mail user agents.
Instead, I will suggest that a new mail should be composed with a
meaningful subject line.
(As a side note: The web interface does benefit from [SOLVED] as being visible.
I just found an example accidentally by looking at April 2024 rather than at
April 2025 - but the good effect was ruined as the thread then continued for
far too long.)
I hope this is satisfactory to all concerned: if it isn't, please reply
in a new mail with a meaningful subject.
With every good wish, as ever,
Andy Cater
(amacater@debian.org)
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