Viewing Related Emails

[dmarcus123]

hi,

When I am viewing an email, it is easy and nice to view related items in the same message thread. Is there an easy way to view more widely related items?

Specifcally, I'd like to see (right now) all messages with the same topic from/to this sender. I could also see wanting to see messages w/ same topic from and/or w/ the same subject and/or w/ the same person.

The problem here is that threading is an imperfect way to link a conversation. (Or is my Outlook threading just not working right?)

Thanks!

[brad]

The Dashboard is designed to allow you to view all messages from a given Topic. We plan to enhance Contact views in the future to show all messages from a given Topic.

Can you elaborate on the issues you are having with threading? Are you running IMS on multiple machines and/or are there other processes that access your mail account such as a PDA or another add-in? If the latter, you may want to adjust your processing delay to try and avoid message conflicts.

[dmarcus123]

Brad,

I don't think it is a problem with threading per se. I think it is that related messages can be wider than just a thread.

Dave

[deva]

dmarcus,

Things you're talking about here fit into two general categories I think about:

1) Advanced threading / thread management. Linking different threads together, spawning multiple threads from a single conversation, etc. There are a lot of ways to go in/around these areas, many of which are pretty large technical undertakings. We'll be writing more about potential directions in this area and soliciting feedback, but we're unlikely to make a bunch of major changes in the short-term.

2) Message filtering. This is especially relevant in the dashboard in terms of which messages get displayed. We're working on making the dashboard more flexible, and will take your comments into consideration as we figure out ways to improve the usability and flexibility of the information display in the Dashboard.

[dmarcus123]

Things you're talking about here fit into two general categories I think about:

1) Advanced threading / thread management. Linking different threads together, spawning multiple threads from a single conversation, etc. ...

2) Message filtering. This is especially relevant in the dashboard in terms of which messages get displayed. ...

I think that a 3rd approach is to offer the user the option for what might be termed 'subject line threading', where you would abandon the Outlook threading and create your own virtual threading based on the subject line (stripped of all the re: and FWD:, and perhaps making it case-insensitive). The original thread info could be used to help in the ordering of the messages.

What do you think?

Also am in agreement that the advanced thread (linking/splitting) is nice. However, the virtual threading idea might obviate the need for combining threads.

[brad]

dmarcus:

Now you have me confused.

I think that a 3rd approach is to offer the user the option for what might be termed 'subject line threading', where you would abandon the Outlook threading and create your own virtual threading based on the subject line (stripped of all the re: and FWD:, and perhaps making it case-insensitive). The original thread info could be used to help in the ordering of the messages.

With the exception of case-insensitivity, this is exactly how IMS handles threading right now. The information in the RelatedView for a given message is based on subject line, not internal Outlook conversation id's. Is this the behavior you are seeing?

[dmarcus123]

dmarcus:

Now you have me confused.

I think that a 3rd approach is to offer the user the option for what might be termed 'subject line threading', where you would abandon the Outlook threading and create your own virtual threading based on the subject line (stripped of all the re: and FWD:, and perhaps making it case-insensitive). The original thread info could be used to help in the ordering of the messages.

With the exception of case-insensitivity, this is exactly how IMS handles threading right now. The information in the RelatedView for a given message is based on subject line, not internal Outlook conversation id's. Is this the behavior you are seeing?

Wow. I always ASSumed that IMS used the In-Reply-To header for threading. I have just sent/forwarded/replied to/etc a bunch of messages using 3 accounts and senders ... will look at them and see if there are any discrepancies vis-a-vis what you said.

[dmarcus123]

dmarcus:

Now you have me confused.

I think that a 3rd approach is to offer the user the option for what might be termed 'subject line threading', where you would abandon the Outlook threading and create your own virtual threading based on the subject line (stripped of all the re: and FWD:, and perhaps making it case-insensitive). The original thread info could be used to help in the ordering of the messages.

With the exception of case-insensitivity, this is exactly how IMS handles threading right now. The information in the RelatedView for a given message is based on subject line, not internal Outlook conversation id's. Is this the behavior you are seeing?

Brad - I'll be damned. I am seeing the behaviour that you describe and it IS what I want. (Case insensitivity would be nice to add though.)

This imply that one way to merge threads would be a facility that allows the subject of an email to be changed. Is this a possibility from IMS?

Dave

[brad]

In-Reply-To is not sufficient for our purposes at this time, so we use subject and parse out FW, RE, etc..

Changing the subject on a message that has already been processed by IMS will not result in associating it with another thread. However, changing the subject as you reply will ensure that the reply is associated with the thread that you want to link it to.

[dmarcus123]

In-Reply-To is not sufficient for our purposes at this time, so we use subject and parse out FW, RE, etc..

Changing the subject on a message that has already been processed by IMS will not result in associating it with another thread. However, changing the subject as you reply will ensure that the reply is associated with the thread that you want to link it to.

Brad,

I just replied to an email. The subject the send used was "Meeting Today". When I replied, I wanted the topic to be more specific since I have a bunch of meetings today, so I made the subject of my reply "Re: Meeting Today (about Bob)".

Of course, the related messages view did not associate the two messages.

Of course, as an IMS user, I was a little frustrated!!!

Sending this as a reminder of the real life use cases here.

Thanks,

Dave