Open Bug 250162 Opened 21 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Warn before posting a new newsgroup thread with the same subject line as an existing one

Categories

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement)

enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: smjg, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

It happens from time to time that someone inadvertently posts a new message that coincides in subject line with another, while trying to start a new thread. There are a few reasons this should be avoided: 1. Many newsreaders (Mozilla included) automatically thread together messages with the same subject line, even if they are not connected by References headers. Consequently: (a) two separate discussions (or so it was intended) will confusingly appear as one (b) people who have ignored the previous thread with the same subject (possibly including the very poster of the new 'original' message) will miss the new post and its replies (c) it becomes impossible to watch/ignore the two discussions separately. 2. Such a post can be symptomatic of the poster's failure to read the pre-existing thread and hence possibly find an answer to his/her query before reposting it. 3. It can also be symptomatic of user error leading to belief that the first posting attempt didn't get through (though this is addressed to at least some degree by bug 3746). 4. Subject lines that would come up again and again can tend to be inherently unhelpful ones such as "help" or merely citing the topic of the whole newsgroup. 5. Alternatively, I think it happens sometimes that someone meant to post a followup but instead ended up starting a new thread. I therefore suggest that we introduce a feature to stop and warn the user before posting if the subject line is identical to one of a header that's been downloaded in the same newsgroup. Maybe the warning could look something like this: There is already a thread in this newsgroup with the subject line "help". It is recommended that you check the existing thread to see if your question has already been answered. If you still wish to post the message, consider posting it as a followup or changing the subject line. [Post Anyway] [View Existing Thread] [Cancel] [Help] Of course, it needn't have to be an exact match; mere capitalisation/punctuation variations could be caught as well. The only real complication I can see is considering if the 'existing thread' is all expired stuff that hasn't been cleaned up yet. In which case changing the subject line would be sensible, but offering to view the formerly existing thread wouldn't. There probably ought to be a way of switching the warning off. Periodic posts such as FAQs often have the same subject over and over again, but as for whether even this is a good idea, I'm not settled one way or another.
Severity: normal → enhancement
OS: MacOS X → All
Hardware: Macintosh → All
Product: MailNews → Core
sorry for the spam. making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs. filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.
Assignee: sspitzer → nobody
QA Contact: composition
Product: Core → MailNews Core
Severity: normal → S3
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