[R] E-Mail/Post Threading (was: Bonferroni p-value greater t

[Charilaos Skiadas]

On Mar 29, 2007, at 3:21 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:

> Since most e-mail systems (list managers, MUA's, etc.) thread based  
> upon
> the headers and not the subject, as described in the above references,
> unless you generate a completely new e-mail, your reply will be linked
> to the e-mail and thread to which you are replying.
>
> It's pretty much a dichotomous situation.  Use 'reply' and you get
> linked to the old thread. Use a 'new' e-mail and you start a new  
> thread.
>
> If you are truly moving in a new direction, I would be tempted to  
> start
> a new thread and perhaps to make it easier for readers, include a
> reference/link to the post in question. That way, you keep your new
> e-mail in a separate thread, while 'virtually' linking it back to the
> original that raised your interest.

Perhaps moving a bit off topic here, but to elaborate a bit more on  
this: Each "thread" is really a "tree", where your message is a child  
of the message you responded to. Since typically each person responds  
to the last message in the thread, this often ends up being linear.  
But if for instance three people respond to the same original  
message, this creates  three children of the root node.

You can see this in action here for instance: http://news.gmane.org/ 
gmane.emacs.ess.general

It then depends on your software, how to show this tree. Most mail  
clients would just flatten it out into a single list, which is what  
we usually refer to as a "thread" I guess. But the richer structure  
is there.

So based on this I would suggest simply responding to the message you  
want to, changing the subject appropriately.

> HTH,
>
> Marc

Haris Skiadas
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Hanover College