> Add a ranking system, some arbitrary tag (numeric, alpha, whatever) maybe to 
> allow later global filtering by relevance. For example, "Show me all the last 
> 2 weeks worth of mail that wasn't friendly chitchat, flames or apologies."
> Could be multi-coded for code snippets/links, documentation, things to do, 
> etc.  Sure, we have [BUG][FIX][UPDATES][OT] but not everyone applies these 
> consistently; OTOH, "live" editing of Subjects would be nice, as long as 
> subsequent messages with same subject get "reedited" automagically, so we 
> could add a [BUG] to "Can't run simulator on TI-83" and then use the usual 
> filtering at some future date to find gems like that.
> 

It would be nice to have a filter that chooses a particular thread.  I
think this would help with your goal.  Unfortunately, thread information
can't be stored in the current index file format, at least not easily. 
I guess one of the existing lines of the file could be extended with
more info, as a hack....

Also, a general "OR" filter would be nice -- right now all you get is an
implicit "AND" of all active filters.  Really, an etoys-like interface
to the filter list would be very nice....

Note, if you are willing to hand-mark messages, you can file messages
into a "non-chitchat" category as you read them.  (If you aren't-willing
to hand-mark them, I don't see how you are going to distinguish such a
property.)

-Lex