Mute works like a filter to auto-archive that particular conversation;
keeping it from returning to the inbox. New messages will still come
in, but it will remain archived, and only show up under the labels you
applied.
Given: the scenario where a single reply results in further replies to
that same reply continuing in serial. In this case there is but a
single thread to this conversation, so they are one in the same.
Given: the scenario where two replies are made to an original message
in parallel each resulting in further replies in serial. In this case
there are two threads to this conversation, the issue becomes
recognizing this. In a tree hierarchy, such as Google Groups is
capable of presenting, and some readers (programs for reading groups)
can, it is obvious. In GMail this is indistinguishable from the above
scenario, which puts us back into the situation where they are
interchangeably used.
Given that this group deals primarily with GMail and it's uses and
users, it's appropriate to use it interchangeably with differentiating
between the semantical differences between them.
and by default it's a tree hierarchy. The left pane should show the
different threads (branches) by virtue of indentation. The posts
aren't in date/posting order, but it's very clear which post was in
response to which post.
View this same conversation with this link:
http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Users/browse_frm/thread/2bce95610dac5b94?scoring=d&
and it's in pure date order. The indentation is gone, and posts are
out of order in relation to the post they're responding to. This is
exactly like it's displayed within GMail, so that's why thread and
conversation become interchangeable.
Does it use the Subject?
Or the "Message-ID" and/or "References" lines in the header, which are
usually not displayed?
Presumably, newsgroups and Googlegroups make use of the Message-ID or
References lines; otherwise there would be no way to construct the tree
hierarchy from the Subject alone.
Some email clients that download with POP or IMAP and manage the mail on
your PC, also can display messages in thread format, but I usually prefer a
chronological view so that's what I mostly use.
Grouping based on the Message-ID or Reference info can occasionally have
unintended consequences. If someone starts a new conversation by replying
to an old message and giving it a new Subject line, it carries the old
conversation's Message-ID and Reference lines. In a fully threaded view,
the new message ends up in the previous thread and might go unnoticed. This
could be a reason to use the Subject line instead, as the criterion for
grouping messages into conversations.
So I just wondered what Gmail does.
Andy
No, it's because that's one of two ways Google Groups has of
displaying messages; "Standard view" and "View as tree"
http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75420&topic=9245