I am quite surprised by this response, and even more that there are several saying the same thing. > So the "bug" is collapsed message/sort/thread view? No -

I am quite surprised by this response, and even more that there are several saying the same thing. > So the "bug" is collapsed message/sort/thread view? No - the bug is that new messages were being hidden because they were mischaracterized as redundant. I quickly disabled Google's 'conversations' feature (or whatever they call it), when it was first introduced, because it did not seem to be doing a good job, but did not think about its wider implications. I probably should not be surprised about these reactions, as I have had experience with fellow developers who insist that what is manifestly a bug is not one because it is "working as designed", or because there is an undocumented workaround to the undocumented problem.