Threading
Threading turns an Online Group into a structured but self-organising knowledge-base. This means you can go to it any time in the knowledge that we will find the posts nicely organised into categories. The posts on subjects you want to follow are clearly distinguished from the ones you do not.
This page has explanations of:What Threading Is
Threaded discussion is online discussion that takes place within a number of named "threads". A "thread" is a discussion topic with a name that is used in the subject line of all posts in the thread.
Adhering to the threading convention makes it much easier to follow specific discussions in a list. As these discussions can go on for a long time, threading also makes the list archives much more valuable as a knowledge base. Some list subscribers choose only to follow the threads that particularly interest them.
The Benefits of Threading
With Filtering set up, all posts organise themselves into a folder dedicated to the List. Now we want them to organise themselves into a structured knowledge-base within that folder. The nice thing about this kind of knowledge-base is that it doesn't just build itself, it designs itself, too. Simply by participants practicing threading, a structure emerges spontaneously that represents the shared knowledge of the group and redesigns itself as that knowledge evolves.
When a new post is added to a thread, that thread appears at the top of the folder. Threads that are well used tend to float up to the top. Threads that are not used sink to the bottom. A thread may sit dormant for some time and then come back to life.
The best way to see the benefits of threading is to view your posts in a "threaded" format. The How to Thread with Various Programmes page contains guides to viewing posts in Threaded View using various email clients.
Guidelines for Threading
A "thread" is a group of posts with the same subject line. The "re:" or "RE:" or even "FW:" at the beginning of the subject line, is ignored by most email clients. Any change to the spelling of the subject line, however will create a new thread.The rules of threading are:
- before you make a post, check (or search) the archives to make sure you are duplicating a post that is already there
- if your post is new, see if you can find an existing thread that it fits into - if you can, put your new post in that thread
- if you are creating a new thread, think carefully about writing a subject line that really describes what your thread is about (if there are two topics, that may well be two threads)
To reply to an existing thread, send a post using an existing subject line for your post. The easiest way to do this is to open an existing post in the thread and press "reply". Your email client will automatically put the existing subject line in the subject line of your new email, prefixed by "re: ". This means that your post will be grouped with the other posts that it relates to. Take care not to edit the subject line or your post won't appear in the thread and you will be creating a new one.
Jakob Nielsen has written a brief but useful article on writing subject lines called Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines .
Once a group of Online Group participants gets in the habit of using threads, this should be the default way to view the Online Group.
Links on the Web
-
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
- A thorough guide to style in emails. A classic and readable document by Kaitlin Duck Sherwood.