Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] Documentation/MyFirstContribution: recommend shallow threading

[Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>]

On Wed, Jun 03, 2026 at 01:01:45PM +0300, Tuomas Ahola wrote:
> Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> wrote:
> 
> > The "MyFirstContribution" document recommends the use of deep threading:
> > every cover letter of subsequent iterations shall be linked to the cover
> > letter of the preceding version. The result of this is that eventually,
> > threads with many versions are getting nested so deep that it becomes
> > hard to follow.
> > 
> > Adapt the recommendation to instead propose shallow threading: instead
> > of linking the cover letter to the previous cover letter, the user is
> > supposed to always link it to the first cover letter. This still makes
> > it easy to follow the iterations, but has the benefit of nesting to a
> > much shallower level.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
> > ---
> >  Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc | 4 ++--
> >  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc b/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc
> > index b9fdefce02..069020196c 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc
> > +++ b/Documentation/MyFirstContribution.adoc
> > @@ -1227,8 +1227,8 @@ Message-ID: <foo.12345.author@example.com>
> >  
> >  Your Message-ID is `<foo.12345.author@example.com>`. This example will be used
> >  below as well; make sure to replace it with the correct Message-ID for your
> > -**previous cover letter** - that is, if you're sending v2, use the Message-ID
> > -from v1; if you're sending v3, use the Message-ID from v2.
> > +**first cover letter** - that is, for any subsequent version that you send,
> > +always use the Message-ID from v1.
> >  
> >  While you're looking at the email, you should also note who is CC'd, as it's
> >  common practice in the mailing list to keep all CCs on a thread. You can add
> > 
> > -- 
> > 2.54.0.1064.gd145956f57.dirty
> 
> If we adapt this change to the guidance, let's fix also other places of the
> document that talk about replying to the previous cover letter.

Good catch, thanks!

Patrick