[Elecraft] OT: How to reply to a thread, and why it's important

[Rick Kunath]

Darwin, Keith wrote:
> Well, I never new that.  Thanks for the mini-rant.  I've always clicked
> Reply but now I have a better understanding of how it works.
> 
> So if I click "reply" and then edit the title of the reply, does that
> also break the thread?

No, the threading stays intact. The subject does not matter.

Which brings up another subject...

If the thread has morphed onto another subject, changing or altering the 
subject is a good idea in some cases. The original threading is still 
linked to the original thread in this case. It may be better to just 
start a new thread sometimes, but that's a hard call to make.

Changing the subject to something entirely different and replying is 
called thread hijacking. This is frowned upon in general.

I.e. the thread is on CW paddles, someone has a question and changes the 
subject to power supplies. They just hijacked the thread with a new 
subject because they replied rather than starting a new message from 
scratch. This should be avoided.

If the subject is CW paddles and morphs on to CW memory keyers as the 
discussion rolls along, it may be appropriate to reflect this with a 
subject edit to reflect the new content at some point. Of course, a new 
thread on the new topic could also be started. This is the better choice 
if it won't disrupt the discussion flow.

Rick Kunath, k9ao