Julia Altshuler said...

> Your system does it differently? It seems to me that changing the
> subject line ought to be a good thing. I love it when the subject line
> changes to reflect the contents of a post. It makes it so much easier
> for me to decide what to read and what to delete without reading.


If you change a subject line, all servers will see it that way and everyone
reading will see it.

You correctly noticed when the thread has tangented with enough interest,
that's a fine time for the "new subject" Was "old subject." change to a new
thread. It's considered good etiquette to clue readers in to the change
this way.

A typo as in "My favorite hambuger" in the subject guarantees that it
renders it and any replies unsearchable when hunting for "hamburgers."
That's also a perfect time to rename a thread once you notice a typo. I've
corrected a few subject lines of others posters to get it back on track
after the original post, but somehow it wasn't appreciated. What's a BUM!!!
to do?

One habit I've gotten into is I always type my subject line into the body
of the message, first, since I can spell check it within the body of the
message, then cut and paste it into the subject line without typos. Grammar
is another matter.

You can always practice by posting messages to the alt.test (text matter
only) or alt.test.binaries (binary w/text matter) newsgroups on your
server.

All the best,

Andy