Changing the subject (was: On the popularity of git)

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com> writes:

>>>>>> Jay Belanger <jay.p.belanger@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Not wanting to read all of emacs-devel would be a strange reason to leave
>> the list; it isn't a read-it-all or read-none-of-it type deal. I can think
>> of a lot of reasons why someone might write less on emacs-devel. Where did
>> he give his reasons?
>
> I'm not sure why Glenn left, but here's an example of what some of us are
> referring to: In the "IDE" discussion that took place a while back, I was
> actively engaged in discussing ideas with several individuals. Meanwhile, a
> sub-thread began (without changing the subject) that starting talking solely
> about CEDET development. That sub-thread is still ongoing to this day.
>
> Because of that sub-thread, it was necessary to scan every message just to
> determine which messages titled "IDE" were part of the discussion I was
> having, and which titled "IDE" had nothing to do with it.

It's probably worth pointing out to users of Gnus to use

C-c C-f s runs the command message-change-subject (found in
message-mode-map), which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in
‘message.el’.

It is bound to C-c C-f s, <menu-bar> <Field> <Change subject...>.

(message-change-subject NEW-SUBJECT)

Ask for NEW-SUBJECT header, append (was: <Old Subject>).

[back]

when composing a reply/followup to a thread that has actually changed
subject.  And do this early enough exactly in order to keep topics
separate.  If somebody else tried changing the subject line already
(with the same overall topic), try choosing the same changed subject.

-- 
David Kastrup