Coloring rule (for news) doesn't always work

I have a rule to color news posts where I am the author. That lets me
easily see which post in a thread is mine. However, this rule often
does not get exercised when new posts are retrieved and my new post is
within a watched thread. I have to suspect that if one rule doesn't
fire reliably means the likelihood that other rules also don't fire
reliably.

The news rule is:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where the From line contains '*Vanguard*'
Highlight it with Purple

Watched threads are colored blue. If there has been a new post to a
watched thread, it gets bolded. For new posts that I send that start a
thread, they do seem to get reliably colored. However, for my posts
added to an existing thread, only about half of the time do my posts get
colored. It almost seems to be a conflict in OE's coloring. It wants
to make blue a thread that I am watching and also bold my new post
(after the next refresh). This would make my post look blue and bolded,
the same as if a post got added by anyone else. My rule to color it
purple sometimes get overridden. It gets bolded since it is a new post
but it should not be blue (for a post within a watched thread) but
instead be purple.

The rule to color my post within a watched thread seems to be getting
ignored over OE's rule to color the watched thread.

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AFAIK "Watched" messages trump "My Messages" rules by default, Vanguard.
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HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

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*Vanguard* wrote:
I have a rule to color news posts where I am the author. That lets me
easily see which post in a thread is mine. However, this rule often
does not get exercised when new posts are retrieved and my new post is
within a watched thread. I have to suspect that if one rule doesn't
fire reliably means the likelihood that other rules also don't fire
reliably.

The news rule is:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where the From line contains '*Vanguard*'
Highlight it with Purple

Watched threads are colored blue. If there has been a new post to a
watched thread, it gets bolded. For new posts that I send that start a
thread, they do seem to get reliably colored. However, for my posts
added to an existing thread, only about half of the time do my posts get
colored. It almost seems to be a conflict in OE's coloring. It wants
to make blue a thread that I am watching and also bold my new post
(after the next refresh). This would make my post look blue and bolded,
the same as if a post got added by anyone else. My rule to color it
purple sometimes get overridden. It gets bolded since it is a new post
but it should not be blue (for a post within a watched thread) but
instead be purple.

The rule to color my post within a watched thread seems to be getting
ignored over OE's rule to color the watched thread.

"PA Bear"
wrote in :
AFAIK "Watched" messages trump "My Messages" rules by default,
Vanguard.

ARGH! DOH! Where's my gun? Okay, who hid my bullets?

Hmm, I wonder if setting the option for watched messages to NOT color
them might help. I'd hate to lose the blue coloring to let me
differentiate watched from non-watched threads but the the spectacles
icon lets me know that, too. But that same blue color gets applied to
the nodes in the tree listing the newsgroups so that I can determine
when there has been a new post to a watched thread before I even select
that newsgroup.

Well, maybe I'll switch from coloring my posts to flagging them.
Hopefully the coloring applied for watched threads doesn't also trump a
rule that flags that same message.

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*Vanguard* wrote:
"PA Bear"
wrote in :
AFAIK "Watched" messages trump "My Messages" rules by default,
Vanguard.

ARGH! DOH! Where's my gun? Okay, who hid my bullets?

Hmm, I wonder if setting the option for watched messages to NOT color
them might help. I'd hate to lose the blue coloring to let me
differentiate watched from non-watched threads but the the spectacles
icon lets me know that, too. But that same blue color gets applied to
the nodes in the tree listing the newsgroups so that I can determine
when there has been a new post to a watched thread before I even
select that newsgroup.

Well, maybe I'll switch from coloring my posts to flagging them.
Hopefully the coloring applied for watched threads doesn't also trump
a rule that flags that same message.

The only threads I keep a constant watch on are also the same ones I
have participated in, hence only one colouring for me via "watched
messages". I find this the easiest. HTH.
--
Kath Adams
MS MVP - Windows (IE/OE)

"Kath Adams"
wrote in :

The only threads I keep a constant watch on are also the same ones I
have participated in, hence only one colouring for me via "watched
messages". I find this the easiest. HTH.

But when you get involved in a thread where there are a dozen, or more,
participants and there are multiple subthreads or hijacks of the thread,
often you want to just continue monitoring the thread from your post on
down and not for every post that gets added. So seeing where your posts
are positioned within the huge multi-subthreaded posts makes it faster
to snap over to that part of the discussion. For a thread consisting of
a dozen, or fewer, posts then coloring my posts within that thread is
unimportant. When participating in a thread that involves dozens of
users, several subthreads, some hijacks on other topics (which got
instigated by the original thread), and just be the sheer number of
posts within a huge thread, readily seeing which ones are yours makes it
easier to spot where to continue the discussion the next time you load
OE.

We both agree that coloring aids in reading the threads. Since the
thread is already marked with the spectacles icon in OE (which you also
use), coloring is technically superfluous since the thread has already
been marked to delineate it from other threads or posts. But coloring
is still nice to have for your eyeballs to recognize the grouping rather
than having to zing left and right to check if there's a spectacles icon
for that post.

For now, I'll try coloring and flagging posts with my moniker. If the
coloring doesn't work on occasion, maybe the flagging will.


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The only time that the coloring gets trumped is when you are grouping
watched messages and there are replies under your message. As soon as the
thread is expanded, your message will have the correct color.
--
Ron Sommer

"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
AFAIK "Watched" messages trump "My Messages" rules by default, Vanguard.
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

AumHa Forums
http://forum.aumha.org

Protect Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect

*Vanguard* wrote:
I have a rule to color news posts where I am the author. That lets me
easily see which post in a thread is mine. However, this rule often
does not get exercised when new posts are retrieved and my new post is
within a watched thread. I have to suspect that if one rule doesn't
fire reliably means the likelihood that other rules also don't fire
reliably.

The news rule is:

Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where the From line contains '*Vanguard*'
Highlight it with Purple

Watched threads are colored blue. If there has been a new post to a
watched thread, it gets bolded. For new posts that I send that start a
thread, they do seem to get reliably colored. However, for my posts
added to an existing thread, only about half of the time do my posts get
colored. It almost seems to be a conflict in OE's coloring. It wants
to make blue a thread that I am watching and also bold my new post
(after the next refresh). This would make my post look blue and bolded,
the same as if a post got added by anyone else. My rule to color it
purple sometimes get overridden. It gets bolded since it is a new post
but it should not be blue (for a post within a watched thread) but
instead be purple.

The rule to color my post within a watched thread seems to be getting
ignored over OE's rule to color the watched thread.

*Vanguard* wrote:
"Kath Adams"
wrote in :

The only threads I keep a constant watch on are also the same ones I
have participated in, hence only one colouring for me via "watched
messages". I find this the easiest. HTH.

But when you get involved in a thread where there are a dozen, or
more, participants and there are multiple subthreads or hijacks of
the thread, often you want to just continue monitoring the thread
from your post on down and not for every post that gets added. So
seeing where your posts are positioned within the huge
multi-subthreaded posts makes it faster to snap over to that part of
the discussion. For a thread consisting of a dozen, or fewer, posts
then coloring my posts within that thread is unimportant. When
participating in a thread that involves dozens of users, several
subthreads, some hijacks on other topics (which got instigated by the
original thread), and just be the sheer number of posts within a huge
thread, readily seeing which ones are yours makes it easier to spot
where to continue the discussion the next time you load OE.

We both agree that coloring aids in reading the threads. Since the
thread is already marked with the spectacles icon in OE (which you
also use), coloring is technically superfluous since the thread has
already been marked to delineate it from other threads or posts. But
coloring is still nice to have for your eyeballs to recognize the
grouping rather than having to zing left and right to check if
there's a spectacles icon for that post.

For now, I'll try coloring and flagging posts with my moniker. If the
coloring doesn't work on occasion, maybe the flagging will.

I take your points. But I only participate in the OE groups, and a
couple of XP ones (and even in those, I am more of a lurker/learner) and
on the whole, threads tend not to be too long to cause me trouble. OP
posts, a couple of people answer, OP responds that it worked, voila!
(Well, in most cases anyways!)

Kath

"Ron Sommer"
wrote in :
The only time that the coloring gets trumped is when you are grouping
watched messages and there are replies under your message. As soon
as the thread is expanded, your message will have the correct color.

The threads are always expanded. That is an option called
"Automatically expand grouped messages", and I have it enabled. This is
not a problem of blue used for the first post (started by someone else)
in a thread and not seeing the other posts under that thread until you
expand it. This is where the threads are already expanded and my posts
within it are not getting assigned the color specified in my news rule.
Since blue sometimes gets used for my posts, the coloring option for
watched messages does appear to trump the news rule to color my posts
but the trumping is erratic. Sometimes my new posts are purple (per my
news rule) and sometimes they are blue. Flagging (by my news rule),
however, seems to work reliably.

When are you making a thread watched?

I have a rule
Where the from line contains
Highlight with "Fuchsia"
and mark as read
and mark as watched.

This works for me.
--
Ron Sommer

"*Vanguard*" do-not-email@reply-to-group wrote in message
news
"Ron Sommer"
wrote in :
The only time that the coloring gets trumped is when you are grouping
watched messages and there are replies under your message. As soon
as the thread is expanded, your message will have the correct color.

The threads are always expanded. That is an option called
"Automatically expand grouped messages", and I have it enabled. This is
not a problem of blue used for the first post (started by someone else)
in a thread and not seeing the other posts under that thread until you
expand it. This is where the threads are already expanded and my posts
within it are not getting assigned the color specified in my news rule.
Since blue sometimes gets used for my posts, the coloring option for
watched messages does appear to trump the news rule to color my posts
but the trumping is erratic. Sometimes my new posts are purple (per my
news rule) and sometimes they are blue. Flagging (by my news rule),
however, seems to work reliably.

"Ron Sommer"
wrote in :
When are you making a thread watched?

I have a rule
Where the from line contains
Highlight with "Fuchsia"
and mark as read
and mark as watched.

This works for me.


After I submit a [new] post to a thread, I then mark that thread to
watch it. My post obviously isn't listed yet because it just got sent
and there is always some lag before the news server will present it to
anyone, and then I also have to do another refresh or wait until the
next poll before my post that got sent will then get retrieved to show
up locally in my message store and to then have my options and rules
applied against it.

My rule was (as copied from OE):

Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where the From line contains '*Vanguard*'
Highlight it with Purple

Because of the unreliable coloring, I added the clause:

and Flag it

The coloring for watched messages is an option, not a rule. If it runs
concurrently with the rules instead of waiting for all user rules to
complete, there could be a timing problem where the coloring option for
watched threads might run before or after some or all user-defined
rules. The watched coloring option should run first so you could then
override its effect with your rules.

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