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Re: st: RE: Hetero


From   Phil Schumm <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: RE: Hetero
Date   Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:06:20 -0600

On Jan 12, 2007, at 9:51 AM, Joanne Marshall wrote:
Also, how can I reply under the thread so that my new message will not appear as another thread? Sorry I have made the board look a tad messy!

This question comes up a lot. First, understand that the threading you see in the Statalist archives available on StataCorp's web site has nothing to do with the list (located and administered at Harvard) per se but rather with the software used to generate the archives (i.e., to generate the linked HTML pages from the messages themselves). I'm only guessing, but from the footer on the archive pages it looks like the archiver being used is MHonArc. This is only one of many such archivers out there -- one we used ourselves for a time.

MHonArc does its threading in two steps. First, it attempts to thread messages based on the "In-Reply-To" header of the message, when present (it can also use a "References" header, which used to be added by some Internet news readers). Your mail client generates this header when you use the "Reply" function. This is by far the most reliable way to thread messages, and thus if the "In-Reply-To" header is present it trumps anything else. This is why, when someone hits "Reply" to a message and then changes the subject, that reply is still threaded under the original message.

The problem, unfortunately, is that not all mail clients generate an "In-Reply-To" header, and in addition, I've heard that some mail servers are even configured to strip this header out when it exists. One of the two may be happening in your case, and if so, you may be able to rectify the problem by either (1) changing the configuration of your mail client, or (2) speaking with your local system administrator.

Second, if the "In-Reply-To" header is not present, MHonArc attempts to thread the message based on its "Subject" header. It's pretty good about accounting for the various prefixes that get tacked on by the list (i.e., "st:") and/or by people's mail clients (e.g., "Re:"), and IIRC it has a few settings you can tweak WRT this, but sometimes when the different prefixes start to build-up it fails. It's just plain difficult to intuit threads based on the subject line alone without taking into account the message content (and then it gets even more complicated).

The best advice for people who wish their replies to thread properly in the archives (and in people's mailers) is to try and make sure your mailer is adding the "In-Reply-To" header properly. If that's not possible, then look in the archives to see which prefix combinations MHonArc is handling properly, and make sure when you post a reply your subject header contains one of these.

Hope that answers your question.


-- Phil

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