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<p dir="auto">I’m a bit flummoxed by the way MailMate handles message threads. I have read many (but not all) of the messages in the <a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/mailmate%40lists.freron.com/" style="color:#3983C4">MailMate Mail Archive</a> that I can find with a search on “organize by thread”, but I haven’t found an answer to my question.</p>
<p dir="auto">To set the stage, here’s a simple use case:<br>
Over the course of four days, I received four messages that, to me, constitute a single thread:</p>
<ol>
<li value="1"> On 2018-02-06, X sent Y a message with the subject “foo bar” and copied (cc) me.</li>
<li value="2"> On 2018-02-07, Y replied-all to X; subject=“Re: foo bar”.</li>
<li value="3"> On 2018-02-08, X replied-all to Y; subject=“Re: foo bar”.</li>
<li value="4"> On 2018-02-09, X sent a second reply-all to Y’s 2018-02-07 message; subject=“Re: foo bar”.</li>
</ol>
<p dir="auto">If I select any one of these messages in my inbox and click the “Thread” toolbar button, MM does what I expect and displays this (assuming, of course, that I’m sorting by date in ascending order):</p>
<table style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-collapse:collapse; border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px; font-size:0.9em; margin:0 2em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7"><thead>
<tr>
<th style="padding:0.5em">From</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">To</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Subject</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Date</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Msg ID</th>
</tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-06</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">5597</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-07</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6414</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-08</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6137</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-09</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6321</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p dir="auto">On the other hand, if, rather than clicking the “Thread” toolbar button, I enable View > “Organize by Thread”, I see two distinct pairs of messages, separated by other messages:</p>
<table style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-collapse:collapse; border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px; font-size:0.9em; margin:0 2em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7"><thead>
<tr>
<th style="padding:0.5em">From</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">To</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Subject</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Date</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Msg ID</th>
</tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">▼X </td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-06</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">5597</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em"> Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-07</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6414</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p dir="auto">and</p>
<table style="background-color:#F7F7F7; border-collapse:collapse; border-radius:5px 5px 5px 5px; font-size:0.9em; margin:0 2em" bgcolor="#F7F7F7"><thead>
<tr>
<th style="padding:0.5em">From</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">To</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Subject</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Date</th>
<th style="padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Msg ID</th>
</tr>
</thead><tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em">▼X </td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-08</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6137</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em"> X</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Y</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">Re: foo bar</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">2018-02-09</td>
<td style="border-top:1px solid lightgray; padding:0.5em; border-left:1px solid lightgray">6321</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p dir="auto">I don’t understand why View > “Organize by Thread” does not group all four messages together in the same way that clicking the “Thread” toolbar button does. Can anyone explain that behavior? As you can see, I have included the message IDs here, and I note that they do not increase monotonically in chronological order (as I would have predicted). That suggests that message ID could play some role and that MM assigns message IDs in some fashion that isn’t obvious to me. It also seems like Benny’s statement, “<a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/mailmate@lists.freron.com/msg01927.html" style="color:#3983C4">MailMate uses very strict threading. It only shows two messages as related if they are parent-child.</a>” may apply here, though neither my message ID hypothesis nor “very strict threading” explain the discrepancy in the two options for viewing message threads.</p>
<p dir="auto">On a related note, I would like to register another vote in favor of Scott’s <a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/mailmate@lists.freron.com/msg02687.html" style="color:#3983C4">Feature request - highlighting related messages in a thread</a>.</p>
<p dir="auto">Cheers,</p>
<p dir="auto">/topher</p>
<p dir="auto">P.S. Apologies if my markdown tables don’t translate well.</p>
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