[Evolution] Sorting message threads

[Richard Zach <zach math berkeley edu>]

If I have threaded view turned on, should the threads be sorted based on
the date of the oldest or the newest message in the thread?  On the one
hand, I'd like to have the thread jump into view, as it were, if a new
message arrives, so that I don't have to go through hundreds of old
messages to find this now-current thread (if the message is unread,
hitting N will take me there. But then, if I want to find the message
again, I'll have to remember approximately when the first message in
that thread was sent).  On the other hand, you'd want to be able to go
to where the messages from January are in the list if you're looking for
"that thread from back in January", even if it contains a more recent
message.

I more often find myself in the first scenario, so I think I'd like my
threads to be sorted by date of newest message.

Maybe you could have it both ways by having a separate column with a
little thread icon, and sorting on that column sorts on the received
date of the newest message (ascending and descending), while if you have
threaded view turned on and sort on recieved date, or date fields,
they'd be sorted by the date of the oldest  message.  Hiding the column
would just make it behave as it currently does.