When we first touched the Chat: prefix in this thread (proposing this for the mixed-environment:)
the thought was about making the default deltachat prefix short and to find a way to mention the group or topic for the email recipients. And -[] could be a short, language independent “chat prefix” ( possibly even seen as symbolizing a text bubble). It could hold the short group name for group messages, and a closing | could indicate to the recipients that there is no more text in the body to look for.
I think a short chat prefix is nice to indicate the “chat mode”, it would only have to be omitted for classic Re: replies to mailing list messages and maybe messages that clearly classify as emails.
Maybe we can still find a better idea to visualize, and to allow specifying the subject (for Re: replies and classic chat-thread starting messages) for good measure at classic email client contacts.
What do you think?:
One point I noticed now is that the visualization in the editor would only be necessary for non-chat messages after the text gets longer and does not fit entirely into the subject field anymore. Do you think only visualizing the subject part then could reduce the annoyance you see, and resemble more closely the “problem / issue” or the way that the recipient sees the message?
🔓Using bold text to indicate the subject in longer messages
would also be possible and might come more naturally, since headings are frequently seen in bold letters.