Make threads actually useful

[rommeswi]

The title is perhaps a bit polemic. What I mean is that threads are currently not useable because they require too many clicks to see new messages. After clicking on a thread, the message frame shows the list of emails in the thread. It requires again to click onto the sender's address to actually see an email. Worse, if one double clicks the thread, instead of expanding it, the thread opens in another tab.

Several bugzilla issues substantiate that I am not alone with this opinion.

Reddit also thinks so.

I don't have a strong opinion on how these issues should be addressed. There are many suggestions in the links above. I would be grateful for anything that gets me to the newest email in a thread with one click in the message/thread list.

[Betterbird]

You want polemic? OK, don't use threading, it sucks 😉.

At least this reference isn't right:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/u1ejo1/automatically_expand_all_threads/
If you expand a folder with *, it stays that way. Also (quote): Worse is I've missed emails because they arrive, are put into an un-expanded thread, and the "root" or "top level" email of the thread shows as read so I ignore it. Well, threads with new unread messages are at least underlined.

Here's a summary of the others:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=284336 - "Expand All Threads with Unread" / "Collapse All Threads without Unread"
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=305741 - reversed threading - Issue #160
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218935 - scroll to new message - Isn't that implemented now?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/16nmcwf/is_there_a_way_to_have_an_email_chain_auto/ - Auto expand on new message
https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbird/comments/wqqffm/sort_by_threaded_but_new_messages_are_hidden_in/ - the same.

We'll see what we can do.

BTW: "anything that gets me to the newest email in a thread with one click in the message/thread list" is along the lines of https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1468925 - Space should advance to next unread message.

[Betterbird]

OK, we got a big of feedback. In general, you can press the letter "n" to advance to the next unread message.

Are you aware of "View > Threads > Threads with Unread"? That will cover part of bug 284336 - "Expand All Threads with Unread".

Bug 218935 - scroll to new message: It will only scroll to new messages when you open a folder, not when you're already in it and new mail arrived. That would also be pretty disruptive. You're looking at some older messages, new mail arrives and the whole thing scrolls away.

There's also https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=242300 - New messages in thread are not obvious enough.

I guess the Reddit posts "Auto expand on new message" or the reverse threading would improve the situation.

[Gunther-Schulz]

The most obvious (and easiest?) solution to me would be for the order of the messages inside a thread to adhere to the chosen sorting. I always select date newest, but the thread itself will always be from oldest to newest. Have been missing messages because of that.

[Betterbird]

Yes, that's "reverse sorting", Issue #160. We should look into that.

[Betterbird]

We've implemented "reversed threading" and we've just fixed an ancient bug that new mail in collapsed threads can't be found easily (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=242300). That will be released in forthcoming versions, Windows build based on 115 here:
https://www.betterbird.eu/downloads/WindowsInstaller/betterbird-115.15.0-bb32-latest-build5.en-US.win64.installer.exe

2bf0311
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Please file a new issue for further suggestions.