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Duplicate Threads

weebeequilting
 

Why are there sometimes duplicate threads? ?Sometimes they are listed one below the other and sometimes there are other threads in between. ?I have checked and the spelling and wording of the thread titles are exactly the same. ?


Thanks for any clues about this.


Janice B

AZ
 

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Janice, I have one possible explanation.?

I own a couple of freecycle groups, that are moderated.

There have been times where I have approved a message, only to notice that the message has not come through the group, maybe for 6 to 8 hours.

So, I approve it again, only to see it come through twice within a minute or two, both with the same time stamp.

If other messages were approved in the meantime, then there would be messages between the two identical messages.

Your clue would be to look at the complete header and note whether the messages had to be approved by a moderator, and if so, check the time they were approved, it will probably show two different times if the situation was like I described.

Otherwise, I would not know.

Marlin



On 7/26/2016 8:25 AM, weebeequilting wrote:

Why are there sometimes duplicate threads? ?Sometimes they are listed one below the other and sometimes there are other threads in between. ?I have checked and the spelling and wording of the thread titles are exactly the same. ?


Thanks for any clues about this.


Janice B

AZ
J_Olivia Catlady
 

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I think you'd have to look in logs for whether a message was approved by a moderator. This information is not currently included in the header, because that would cause it to be available to all members. Whether of not to include it was the basis of a very recent discussion in beta, with Mark deciding to forego putting that info in the header due to strong feelings by some moderators about not letting all members know which members' messages are moderated and which are not (I.e., who in the group is on moderation and who is not in an unmoderated group).

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 26, 2016, at 9:58 AM, Marlin47@... wrote:


Janice, I have one possible explanation.?

I own a couple of freecycle groups, that are moderated.

There have been times where I have approved a message, only to notice that the message has not come through the group, maybe for 6 to 8 hours.

So, I approve it again, only to see it come through twice within a minute or two, both with the same time stamp.

If other messages were approved in the meantime, then there would be messages between the two identical messages.

Your clue would be to look at the complete header and note whether the messages had to be approved by a moderator, and if so, check the time they were approved, it will probably show two different times if the situation was like I described.

Otherwise, I would not know.

Marlin



On 7/26/2016 8:25 AM, weebeequilting wrote:

Why are there sometimes duplicate threads? ?Sometimes they are listed one below the other and sometimes there are other threads in between. ?I have checked and the spelling and wording of the thread titles are exactly the same. ?


Thanks for any clues about this.


Janice B

AZ
 

Janice,

Why are there sometimes duplicate threads? ... I have checked and the
spelling and wording of the thread titles are exactly the same.
When a message is received (either via email or posted using the group's web pages) there are two factors that determine whether it will be appended to an existing thread or start a new one.

One factor is visible: does the Subject field match an existing thread Subject. Certain variations are allowed, such as having Re: prefixed to the subject. Missing or added hashtags might also be allowed as a match.

The other factor can only be seen in the message header (View Source), and that is whether the message is marked as "In-Reply-To," or it "References," a message that is in an existing thread. When you use the Reply function in the group's web page the In-Reply-To field is always marked appropriately.

Most email user interfaces will also mark a reply, most of the time. It could be that the messages that started a duplicate to an existing thread were sent by email, from a user interface that didn't mark the message "In-Reply-To" (or "References"). I've seen some instances where an email UI that normally gets that right will fail to mark a message if you duplicate the unsent draft and send the duplicate draft instead of the original.

To avoid that limitation, there's one more rule. If the message is not marked "In-Reply-To" (or "References") but the message Subject begins with "Re" and matches a thread that is less than a week old then this message is added to that thread anyway.

The bottom line is, in normal circumstances your threads shouldn't be broken into separate parts with the same Subject. A careful examination of the message headers of the messages in each separate thread may reveal why a message started a new thread when it apparently should have appended to an existing one.

As a moderator you can put the threads back together using the Merge function in the Threads View list. See the drop-menu to the right of the date of each thread.

Shal

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