Thread drift

Folks,

One of the most difficult situations in mailing lists is "thread
drift", where the original subject (as referenced in the header)
becomes lost in subsequent issues. If someone were to read a post
that is somewhere downstream, it may contain no information
whatsoever dealing with the subject header.

If people are careful and thoughtful, there is no reason to NOT alter
the header when you reply to reflect the new direction, such as:

Subject: Farm animals (was Re: divisions of the tetrachord in
Sumerian surfing music)

At some point the "(was..." part can be deleted, and the variation
from the theme is now an independent set of variations.

Sometimes following a thread leads one down a meaningless series of
back-alleys, and this is one way, judiciously done, that can clarify
the 'discussions' on any list. Sure has worked on other lists I've
known that had better s/n ratios.

Cheers,
Jon

[Jon Szanto wrote:]
>One of the most difficult situations in mailing lists is "thread
>drift", where the original subject (as referenced in the header)
>becomes lost in subsequent issues. If someone were to read a post
>that is somewhere downstream, it may contain no information
>whatsoever dealing with the subject header.

>If people are careful and thoughtful, there is no reason to NOT alter
>the header when you reply to reflect the new direction, such as:

>Subject: Farm animals (was Re: divisions of the tetrachord in
>Sumerian surfing music)

>At some point the "(was..." part can be deleted, and the variation
>from the theme is now an independent set of variations.

>Sometimes following a thread leads one down a meaningless series of
>back-alleys, and this is one way, judiciously done, that can clarify
>the 'discussions' on any list. Sure has worked on other lists I've
>known that had better s/n ratios.

Love your example, Jon! And I agree with your point as well. Some
time back, I started a thread, and on the very first response it veered
into something else altogether. I eagerly opened each of the many
follow-up posts with the same subject line, and they _all_ were
responses to the other topic! Arggh. But I've been guilty too, and I'm
the only guy who can control the subject line of MY posts, so I'll try
to be more aware of this.

JdL

P.S. On the subject of farm animals, do _not_ go to the movie "The
Animal" (my 15-year-old son conned me into seeing it). Compared to
this, "Saving Silverman" and "Joe Dirt" are high art.