GMail feature request

[gusl]

When replying to a message in GMail, if you change the subject, GMail creates a whole new thread, fully independent from the original thread. In fact, after you've done it, you can't tell that the message has been replied to at all.

Feature request: when you change the subject, automatically create a link to the new thread, right below the message from which the new thread was spun off.
Plus (optional): also create a backlink, at the top of the new thread.

Comments

[roseandsigil.livejournal.com]

It is arguable that this is actually not a nonfeature but a bug. There exists an email header to prevent this from happening, but its use is spotty. Possibly you could report a bug?

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

It is considered a feature that the split occurs. Personally I find it an irritating bit of pandering to people who don't understand how email is supposed to work! Kids these days.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I have a colleague who always e-mails me by replying to an old e-mail and changing the subject. For those ones I'm glad that gmail puts it as a separate conversation. Though it's annoying that all the quoted text at the bottom appears instead of being hidden.

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

I will reveal my inherent old-fogeyness by saying that my preferred solution to such people is to beat them into submission until they learn to use email properly. :-P

[kartiksg.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. I'll test this out and file a bug with the gmail team if this is indeed (still) the case.

[ashliana.livejournal.com]

good idea! and if not that, some other visual/other way to link them together.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

i've often wanted a way to combine emails into the same conversation, and the opposite would occasionally be useful too.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I've had both of those desires - it was really annoying at first that I couldn't combine or split conversations, but now I'm happy enough with how it works. The only times I get merged conversations are when they're of a similar nature anyway (like recently when I got confirmations with the same subject line from a co-worker about each of several independent visiting speakers agreeing to come).