thread merge/split proposal

[David Bremner]

Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg at fifthhorseman.net> writes:

> for (1) i'd propose that the join operation would be implemented by
> adding a new term type "join", which can be applied to any document.
> Its value is the message-id of a message that *should* be "in-reply-to"
> but wasn't.

Having "split" terms or equivalently "signed" +-reference terms would
allow more general thread splitting, effectively updating (via a little
journal of additions and deletions) the references data stored in mail
file.

The implementation cost could not be that much higher than only
join/unjoin; a bit more work managing the terms attached to a document
to avoid contradictions.

Both versions probably complicate some peoples syncing solutions.

d