Saving sent e-mails in INBOX for better threading?

Erik Christiansen dvalin at internode.on.net
Sat Mar 30 05:03:42 UTC 2019


On 30.03.19 09:37, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> Aside: I sort new-to-top, the reverse of the default, because I like to see
> the whole thread before replying. I found sorting conventionally got me
> involved before I'd seen followon posts saying the same stuff I was saying.

Hmmm ... that bears consideration. It definitely has its benefits.

...
> I use notmuch to search email; I have a couple of handle shell scripts 9with
> short names) to do lookups. Saving deciding _where_ to look - notmuch looks
> everywhere and one just has to type an ok search. Then it opens the results
> in mutt anyway for easy persual (the (l)imit keystroke is a grwat boon
> here).

Yes, something beyond mutt's search, and egrep, would be needed on one
mammoth inbox. With archived mail in over a thousand mailboxes, those
simple tools suffice amply, though. (Yeah, probably have to be slightly
OCD to put in the effort of considered archiving, but search keys can be
much looser.)

> My "inbox" is supposed to be my "priority" categories: personal email,
> family, banking. And unfortunately, nearly a bazillion other special
> criteria. Still, lists email goes to its own folder.

In contrast, priority is lost with the OP's one inbox. Pearls, spam, and
general effluvia appear in reverse date order. When I return from a week
on the farm, an important (legal) email could be at the tail end of over
1200 fresh mails. Even from one day to the next, it could be anywhere
amongst over 200.

With procmail hiving bulk traffic off to mailing list mailboxes, mutt
presents the mailboxes in my chosen priority order: residue after
filtering first. (They're unknowns, e.g. bank notices, council rates
notices, ISP invoices, bills.); then family; finally the ML inboxes in
order of interest. If time is short, the tail end misses out, but I
don't miss anything important. And I don't have to fiddle any mutt
display filters to twiddle that effect.

If higher priority mail comes in while I'm burrowing in a ML inbox, then
the next 'c' Change-Folder invocation in mutt takes me to that, for
immediate attention. It works like a bought one. :-)

Erik


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