How to break a thread?

[Molly Mockford]

I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
guess, to re-write the References header at the break point). Reasons
for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond
Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)

[Steve]

On 2019-02-06 12:50 p.m., Molly Mockford wrote:
> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point). Reasons
> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
> any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
>

I think you could do this, i.e. modify the Reference or other headers, with HeaderToolsLite:

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/header-tools-lite/

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Stop_threading_by_subject

[Molly Mockford]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that!

[Molly Mockford]

On 06/02/2019 22:06, Molly Mockford wrote:
> On 06/02/2019 19:24, Steve wrote:
>> On 2019-02-06 12:50 p.m., Molly Mockford wrote:
>>> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
>>> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
>>> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).  Reasons
>>> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
>>> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
>>> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
>>> any way to do it in Thunderbird.  Can anybody help?
>>>
>> I think you could do this, i.e. modify the Reference or other headers,
>> with HeaderToolsLite:
>>
>> https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/header-tools-lite/
>>
>> http://kb.mozillazine.org/Stop_threading_by_subject
>
> Thanks, I'll take a look at that!

Sadly, HeaderToolsLite does not work for me, whether using Change
Header Details or Edit Full Source. I started with a totally innocuous
experiment (amending a Subject line) but it simply had no effect; the
headers stayed as they had been, even after closing TB and re-opening
it. An attempt to delete the References also did nothing. Although the
Options are set to put the original message in Trash, nothing appears
there, confirming the fact that it has failed to make any change to the
headers.

Does anybody else have it working?

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 06/02/2019 18:50, Molly Mockford wrote:

I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).  Reasons
for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
any way to do it in Thunderbird.  Can anybody help?

I would just create a new message and selectively copy/paste the text from the old thread.  This is the easiest way to do as far as I can see.  No need to mess around with ref numbers and all that.

When you copy/paste the text, you can choose "Paste As Quotation - CTRL-Shift-O" by going to Edit >> Paste >> Paste As Quotation.

--

With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

[dillinger]

It only works with email, which isn't too surprising since it syncs back
the changes to the server.
And that is impossible, you can not change messages on news servers.
What you would need is some sort of local ignore references flag, I
don't know if anything like that exists.

[Molly Mockford]

I use POP3, so I certainly would not want it to attempt to make any
changes to a mail server - I don't leave copies on the server once I
have downloaded them.

> And that is impossible, you can not change messages on news servers.
> What you would need is some sort of local ignore references flag, I
> don't know if anything like that exists.

It would never enter my head to try to change messages on news servers.
It is my local newsgroup data, which I have downloaded via NNTP, where I
want to split unwieldy threads into two.

Thanks for the information, dillinger - I'll get rid of the HTL add-on.
Does anybody know of any other way to split a news thread? When I used
Turnpike, it was simplicity itself to select a message and break the
thread there, through its inbuilt functionality; unfortunately it
doesn't run on 64bit machines, so I switched to TB, but this seems to
lack so many facilities which Turnpike had from very early on that I am
finding it quite frustrating!

[Ken Whiton]

*-* On Fri, 8 Feb 2019, at 06:13:58 +0000,
*-* In Article
<mailman.252.1549606450....@lists.mozilla.org>,
*-* Molly Mockford wrote
*-* About Re: How to break a thread?

> On 08/02/2019 01:48, dillinger wrote:

[ ... ]

>> And that is impossible, you can not change messages on news servers.
>> What you would need is some sort of local ignore references flag, I
>> don't know if anything like that exists.

> It would never enter my head to try to change messages on news
> servers. It is my local newsgroup data, which I have downloaded via
> NNTP, where I want to split unwieldy threads into two.

That data isn't (normally) stored on your computer, so the only
time you have access to it is when you're online with the server.

> Thanks for the information, dillinger - I'll get rid of the HTL
> add-on. Does anybody know of any other way to split a news thread?

You could configure Thunderbird to download the affected
newsgroup(s) for offline use. That would allow you to modify the
locally stored copies of posts as desired.

> When I used Turnpike, it was simplicity itself to select a message
> and break the thread there, through its inbuilt functionality;
> unfortunately it doesn't run on 64bit machines, so I switched to TB,
> but this seems to lack so many facilities which Turnpike had from
> very early on that I am finding it quite frustrating!

"...it works satisfactorily in virtual machines running 32-bit Windows
hosted on machines running the 64-bit versions."

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnpike_%28software%29>

Ken Whiton
--
FIDO: 1:132/152
InterNet: kenw...@surfglobal.net.INVAL (remove the obvious to reply)

[Molly Mockford]

On 08/02/2019 09:44, Ken Whiton wrote:
> *-* On Fri, 8 Feb 2019, at 06:13:58 +0000,
> *-* In Article
> <mailman.252.1549606450....@lists.mozilla.org>,
> *-* Molly Mockford wrote

>> It would never enter my head to try to change messages on news
>> servers. It is my local newsgroup data, which I have downloaded via
>> NNTP, where I want to split unwieldy threads into two.
>
>      That data isn't (normally) stored on your computer, so the only
> time you have access to it is when you're online with the server.

That may be the case for your personal set-up, but I have for decades
downloaded my e-mail via POP3 (and sent via SMTP) and my news via NNTP.
I have an offline archive going back for many, many years.

Back in the day, you see, one had to dial up to the internet, and pay
for every minute during which you were connected. So one would dial up,
collect everything, disconnect, read through, write replies, then dial
up again and send one's replies, at the same time downloading anything
new since the last connection. This newfangled idea of keeping one's
data online (and being unable to access it when one's connection goes
down) has only become popular since the advent of broadband.

>> Thanks for the information, dillinger - I'll get rid of the HTL
>> add-on.  Does anybody know of any other way to split a news thread?
>
>      You could configure Thunderbird to download the affected
> newsgroup(s) for offline use.  That would allow you to modify the
> locally stored copies of posts as desired.

That is *precisely* what I said I am trying to do, but Thunderbird won't
enable me to achieve this one simple thing!!!

I think I'll go and investigate Forte Agent instead.

[kes]

On 06/02/2019 19:50, Molly Mockford wrote:
> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).

Reasons
> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
> any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
>

You know that you can 'ignore sub-thread' (covering the first scenario
of trolls), or add [OT] to the header - at the point of start of drift -
and filter on 'OT' from thereon.

[Molly Mockford]

If only I *could* add "OT" (or any other string) to the Subject header,
I would be very happy! But there seems no way in TB to edit the headers
of received posts, and someone else here certainly said that the add-on
only works for e-mail, not for news. I guess that pro tem I shall have
to employ Ignore Sub-thread, although it seems a bit of a clumsy tool.
But it's better than nothing.

[Mr. Man-wai Chang]

On 2/7/2019 11:20 PM, 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
>
> I would just create a new message and selectively copy/paste the text
> from the old thread. This is the easiest way to do as far as I can
> see. No need to mess around with ref numbers and all that.
>
> When you copy/paste the text, you can choose "Paste As Quotation -
> CTRL-Shift-O" by going to Edit >> Paste >> Paste As Quotation.

Another option is to close the current thread and start new ones by
splitting the current thread's content.

--
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/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty!
/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3
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½Ð¦Ò¼{ºî´© (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

[Molly Mockford]

On 09/02/2019 16:14, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:
> On 2/7/2019 11:20 PM, 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
>>
>> I would just create a new message and selectively copy/paste the text
>> from the old thread.  This is the easiest way to do as far as I can
>> see.  No need to mess around with ref numbers and all that.
>>
>> When you copy/paste the text, you can choose "Paste As Quotation -
>> CTRL-Shift-O" by going to Edit >> Paste >> Paste As Quotation.
>
> Another option is to close the current thread and start new ones by
> splitting the current thread's content.

Certainly, what I want is to split the content of the received posts in
a current thread in a newsgroup (stored locally) - but so far I have
been unable to find any way of achieving this. I'm not quit sure what
you mean by closing the current thread; Usenet posts are delivered to
me complete with their References headers, and I cannot "close" one; I
just want to split it, so that as two bifurcated discussions proceed,
each one is displayed in its own separate thread.

If you can tell me how to split the content of an ongoing newsgroup
thread, I will be very grateful indeed. (Certainly the quoted
suggestion of copying and pasting content does not in any way address
the question.)

[Grant Taylor]

On 2/9/19 9:54 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
> If you can tell me how to split the content of an ongoing newsgroup
> thread, I will be very grateful indeed.

I've been reading this thread as I thought much of it was about breaking
(and thus closely related to grafting) threads together for /display/
purposes.

Now, I'm wondering if it might be possible to alter the Refereences: and
/ or In-Reply-To: headers in replies as they are being drafted. Thus
the newly drafted reply would functionally be a new thread. (I guess
you could graft it onto another thread if you wanted, but I digress.)

Would altering how your reply gets threaded suffice? Or are you also
interested in altering how existing messages are displayed?



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

[Ken Whiton]

*-* On Fri, 8 Feb 2019, at 10:08:33 +0000,
*-* In Article
<mailman.256.1549620525....@lists.mozilla.org>,
*-* Molly Mockford wrote

*-* About Re: How to break a thread?

> On 08/02/2019 09:44, Ken Whiton wrote:

>> *-* Molly Mockford wrote

[ ... ]

>> That data isn't (normally) stored on your computer, so the
>> only time you have access to it is when you're online with the
>> server.

> That may be the case for your personal set-up, but I have for
> decades downloaded my e-mail via POP3 (and sent via SMTP) and my
> news via NNTP. I have an offline archive going back for many, many
> years.

> Back in the day, you see, one had to dial up to the internet,

Been there, done that ... dating back to my days of BBSing,
before the internet became widely available. My first few years of
internet access were also dial-up.

> and
> pay for every minute during which you were connected.

That wasn't the case here. My dial-up access was via local
calls, which are included in the cost of the telephone service.
Connection time is not charged separately.

> So one would
> dial up, collect everything, disconnect, read through, write
> replies, then dial up again and send one's replies, at the same time
> downloading anything new since the last connection. This newfangled
> idea of keeping one's data online (and being unable to access it
> when one's connection goes down) has only become popular since the
> advent of broadband.

>>> Thanks for the information, dillinger - I'll get rid of the HTL
>>> add-on. Does anybody know of any other way to split a news thread?

>> You could configure Thunderbird to download the affected
>> newsgroup(s) for offline use. That would allow you to modify the
>> locally stored copies of posts as desired.

> That is *precisely* what I said I am trying to do, but Thunderbird
> won't enable me to achieve this one simple thing!!!

I'm not familiar with recent versions of Thunderbird, but older
versions have had that capability for years. If your Thunderbird
60.5.0 still has it, the steps and labels may or may not be the same
as these, from Thunderbird 24.4.0.

Tools
Account Setings
[News Account Name]
Synchronization & Storage
Select newsgroups for offline use

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 09/02/2019 19:40, Grant Taylor wrote:

Would altering how your reply gets threaded suffice?  Or are you also interested in altering how existing messages are displayed?

Nobody understands what exactly is required by the OP.  As far as I can see He/she wants to save certain messages and if this is so, then by going to:

File >> Save As >> File (or CTRL+S)

is one way to do.

However, I am non the wiser despite all these posts about the topic so I have decided to stay away from this before my posts are censored.

[Molly Mockford]

No, it's the "modify the local stored copies" that I'm trying to do! Of
course I'm downloading my newsgroups via NNTP and storing them locally;
it would never occur to me to read them online (except way back in the
days of DejaNews). I thought I had already explained this further up
this thread.

[Molly Mockford]

On 09/02/2019 19:40, Grant Taylor wrote:

> On 2/9/19 9:54 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
>> If you can tell me how to split the content of an ongoing newsgroup
>> thread, I will be very grateful indeed.
>
> I've been reading this thread as I thought much of it was about breaking
> (and thus closely related to grafting) threads together for /display/
> purposes.
>
> Now, I'm wondering if it might be possible to alter the Refereences: and
> / or In-Reply-To: headers in replies as they are being drafted.  Thus
> the newly drafted reply would functionally be a new thread.  (I guess
> you could graft it onto another thread if you wanted, but I digress.)

Yes, I'm sure it has to be done by altering the References header. (I'm
not bothered about doing it in mailing lists, which I never archive
anyway, so the In-Reply-To doesn't come into it.)

> Would altering how your reply gets threaded suffice?  Or are you also
> interested in altering how existing messages are displayed?

It is the latter - once a particular thread has been going for a while,
and has started to diverge in part while remaining on-topic in another
part, that I want to divide up the two parts, so that when new messages
arrive they are automatically displayed in one or the other section. My
own replies don't really come into it; there are far more posts from
other people than from me in such threads.

But I definitely get the impression that this is something which cannot
be achieved either in Thunderbird or in any of its add-ons.

[Alfred Peters]

Es schrieb einmal Molly Mockford:

> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point). Reasons
> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.

It's not a good style to do so either, but as you wish.

Reply as usual. Then save the message as template. Reopen that template
and the references are gone.

HTH
Alfred
--
Thunderbird (67.0a1) - Thunderbird Daily BuildID=20190209211449
Rev: Comm-Central:c3727c9fe841 / Mozilla-Central:14ee0b7ecef3 19110.7

[Molly Mockford]

On 10/02/2019 09:13, Alfred Peters wrote:

> Reply as usual. Then save the message as template. Reopen that template
> and the references are gone.

Trouble is, I don't want to break the thread at a post of my own (the
thread may not even include any posts from me). It is once the
discussion has started to bifurcate that I want to divide up the posts
held locally, for the better functioning of what I have archived from
various newsgroups. In Turnpike, this is such a simple thing to do!
But I am now convinced that it cannot be done in Thunderbird.

[alta88[nntp]]

On 02/06/2019 11:50 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point). Reasons
> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
> any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
>

The TotalMessage extension allows for simple message rethreading or
unthreading. For online newsgroups, obviously the message at the server
cannot be edited.
To remove a message from a thread: select it, crtl-v, ctrl-x.
To rethread a message to a new parent: select it, ctrl-v, arrow up/down
to or mouse select the new parent, ctrl-v to rethread. You can also drag
and drop a message onto a new parent.

The extension is pretty complex and heavy and mostly for my own use, but
does have this small feature. Use v4.1 for Tb 60.

https://bitbucket.org/alta8888/totalmessage/wiki/Home

[Molly Mockford]

On 10/02/2019 15:37, alta88[nntp] wrote:
> On 02/06/2019 11:50 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
>> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
>> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
>> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).  Reasons
>> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
>> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
>> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
>> any way to do it in Thunderbird.  Can anybody help?
>>
>
> The TotalMessage extension allows for simple message rethreading or
> unthreading. For online newsgroups, obviously the message at the server
> cannot be edited.

The online things I can think of by way of "online newsgroups" are the
dreaded GoogleGroups; all my Usenet newsgroups are downloaded via NNTP
and stored locally, where I read them and compose replies to be sent out
into the wild via NNTP.

> To remove a message from a thread: select it, crtl-v, ctrl-x.
> To rethread a message to a new parent: select it, ctrl-v, arrow up/down
> to or mouse select the new parent, ctrl-v to rethread. You can also drag
> and drop a message onto a new parent.
>
> The extension is pretty complex and heavy and mostly for my own use, but
> does have this small feature. Use v4.1 for Tb 60.
>
> https://bitbucket.org/alta8888/totalmessage/wiki/Home

Many thanks - I downloaded this with some excitement, and installed it
(I could tell it was installed, because every newsgroup post was now
prefixed with "Subject:", and there was a new tab in Tools-> Options ->
Display); but I couldn't get it to work. Ctrl-v did nothing; ctrl-h
(which the FAQ says I need to toggle) did nothing; and it seemed to me
that the Tools-> Options -> Display pane would set global options, not
per-message.

So I studied the FAQ at the link you gave, and came across the
following: "Editing (thus rethreading) is not available for messages in
an IMAP readonly ***or news (NNTP)*** or trash folder." (my emphasis)
And it is, of course, in news (NNTP) folders that I wish to use it - not
IMAP, not read-only, not trash, but my local downloaded (via NNTP)
Usenet newsgroup posts. So I guess, sadly, that it isn't going to work
for me. Maybe it would work on mailing lists, which get downloaded via
POP3 like all my other mail, but I have very few of those and they are
low-traffic, so present no problems in terms of controlling them.

I will continue to try and explore this add-on in depth, however, and
see whether I can find a way to get it to do what I want. Thank you for
pointing me towards it, anyway.

[kes]

On 08/02/2019 14:48, Molly Mockford wrote:
> On 08/02/2019 12:19, kes wrote:
>> On 06/02/2019 19:50, Molly Mockford wrote:
>>> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
>>> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
>>> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).
>>
>> Reasons
>>> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
>>> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
>>> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
>>> any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
>>>
>>
>> You know that you can 'ignore sub-thread' (covering the first scenario
>> of trolls), or add [OT] to the header - at the point of start of drift -
>> and filter on 'OT' from thereon.
>
> If only I *could* add "OT" (or any other string) to the Subject header,
> I would be very happy!

I'm sorry, I'm puzzled. I have none of the add-ons suggested to you by
others here, yet as you see I have added an [OT] to /your/ subject line.
I am also using Thunderbird. After you 'Reply', just edit the subject
line as well as your message, before you 'send'. What am I missing?

[kes]

On 08/02/2019 14:48, Molly Mockford wrote:

> On 08/02/2019 12:19, kes wrote:
>> On 06/02/2019 19:50, Molly Mockford wrote:
>>> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
>>> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
>>> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).
>>
>> Reasons
>>> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
>>> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
>>> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
>>> any way to do it in Thunderbird. Can anybody help?
>>>
>>
>> You know that you can 'ignore sub-thread' (covering the first scenario
>> of trolls), or add [OT] to the header - at the point of start of drift -
>> and filter on 'OT' from thereon.
>
> If only I *could* add "OT" (or any other string) to the Subject header,
> I would be very happy! But there seems no way in TB to edit the headers
> of received posts

[Molly Mockford]

On 11/02/2019 08:18, kes wrote:

> I'm sorry, I'm puzzled. I have none of the add-ons suggested to you by
> others here, yet as you see I have added an [OT] to /your/ subject line.
> I am also using Thunderbird. After you 'Reply', just edit the subject
> line as well as your message, before you 'send'. What am I missing?

The fact that I want to do this after receipt of other people's posts,
downloaded to my computer and stored locally, when it becomes
advantageous to divide up a lengthy thread. Yes, of course I can change
a Subject line when I make a post, but that's not relevant to the issue.
I may have a downloaded thread of several hundred posts from several
dozen people which I want to divide up, and I can't do that by making a
post myself.

In Turnpike, one simply selected one post in the thread, and used the
option "Break Thread". I know that Thunderbird does not offer this
option, but I had hoped to find some kind of workaround which would
achieve the same result. Sadly, it seems there isn't any.

[alta88[nntp]]

On 02/10/2019 11:04 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
> On 10/02/2019 15:37, alta88[nntp] wrote:
>> On 02/06/2019 11:50 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
>>> I would really like to be able to select a message and break the thread
>>> at that point, basically creating two threads (the method being, I would
>>> guess, to re-write the References header at the break point).  Reasons
>>> for this could include wanting to ignore the section of a thread
>>> part-hijacked by trolls, or just to divide one because of thread drift.
>>> My previous software achieved this without difficulty, but I cannot find
>>> any way to do it in Thunderbird.  Can anybody help?
>>>
>>
>> The TotalMessage extension allows for simple message rethreading or
>> unthreading. For online newsgroups, obviously the message at the server
>> cannot be edited.
>
> The online things I can think of by way of "online newsgroups" are the
> dreaded GoogleGroups; all my Usenet newsgroups are downloaded via NNTP
> and stored locally, where I read them and compose replies to be sent out
> into the wild via NNTP.
>

No, I meant online as opposed to offline, to Tb. I don't see a reason
local offline newsgroups shouldn't work, so will see about testing for
offline nntp rather than excluding all nntp.

As for Options and the Headers tab, it wfm in linux and win7. It needs
to work, to remove the Subject: in the threadpane message list, which is
a demo of customizing the subject column. You can post a message in the
mozillazine forum (link on the homepage) with details of the problem
(any console log errors may help) if you like.

[Andy Burns]

kes wrote:

> What am I missing?

I think Molly wants to edit received messages so they are stored as
separate threads locally, not to edit replies before sending

[Molly Mockford]

Exactly so!

[Wolf K]

Partial workaround is to Save As, with any filename(s) you like. But
that's external, and doesn't affect how Tbird handles future posts in
the same thread. Hence the suggestion to relabel Subject, e.g. as "XYZ
(Was: Re:ABC)".

AFAIK, there's no way for MM to have everything she wants.

--
Wolf K
kirkwood40.blogspot.com
It's called an "opinion" because it's not a fact.

[Molly Mockford]

On 12/02/2019 13:59, Wolf K wrote:
> On 2019-02-12 04:03, Andy Burns wrote:
>> kes wrote:
>>
>>> What am I missing?
>>
>> I think Molly wants to edit received messages so they are stored as
>> separate threads locally, not to edit replies before sending
>
> Partial workaround is to Save As, with any filename(s) you like. But
> that's external, and doesn't affect how Tbird handles future posts in
> the same thread. Hence the suggestion to relabel Subject, e.g. as "XYZ
> (Was: Re:ABC)".
>
> AFAIK, there's no way for MM to have everything she want

Yes, I came to that conclusion a couple of dozen posts ago. Next step
is to investigate Forte Agent and see whether it can do the things I
want an e-mail/news client to do. The main trouble with Thunderbird, I
think, is that it is very focussed on doing things online, such as IMAP,
and I want to download all my mails and news and then file it locally in
a manner which makes sense to me.

I am grateful to those who made a sincere effort to find solutions for
me; but it is clear that no appropriate solution exists.

[Wolf K]

On 2019-02-12 10:11, Molly Mockford wrote:
> On 12/02/2019 13:59, Wolf K wrote:
>> On 2019-02-12 04:03, Andy Burns wrote:
>>> kes wrote:
>>>
>>>> What am I missing?
>>>
>>> I think Molly wants to edit received messages so they are stored as
>>> separate threads locally, not to edit replies before sending
>>
>> Partial workaround is to Save As, with any filename(s) you like. But
>> that's external, and doesn't affect how Tbird handles future posts in
>> the same thread. Hence the suggestion to relabel Subject, e.g. as "XYZ
>> (Was: Re:ABC)".
>>
>> AFAIK, there's no way for MM to have everything she want
> Yes, I came to that conclusion a couple of dozen posts ago. Next step
> is to investigate Forte Agent and see whether it can do the things I
> want an e-mail/news client to do. The main trouble with Thunderbird, I
> think, is that it is very focussed on doing things online, such as IMAP,
> and I want to download all my mails and news and then file it locally in
> a manner which makes sense to me.

That's why I use POP3.

> I am grateful to those who made a sincere effort to find solutions for
> me; but it is clear that no appropriate solution exists.
>


--

[Grant Taylor]

On 2/12/19 8:11 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
> I want to download all my mails and news and then file it locally in a
> manner which makes sense to me.

What can you do with POP3 that you can't do with IMAP?

[Molly Mockford]

On 27/02/2019 01:38, Grant Taylor wrote:
> On 2/12/19 8:11 AM, Molly Mockford wrote:
>> I want to download all my mails and news and then file it locally in a
>> manner which makes sense to me.
>
> What can you do with POP3 that you can't do with IMAP?

There's a reasonably basic article explaining the differences at
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2838189/two-good-reasons-to-stick-with-pop3-email-over-imap.html.