title: Emacs Gnus receiving mail (dis)order
body: <p>In years of using Emacs I never used it for e-mails. Always saw it as a very convoluted system to do it (let alone e-mails are a too convoluted system to do messaging, but that's a different gripe). Now, first time using Gnus and connecting it to GMail, the e-mails that appear in the inbox arrive in no order or sequence. For example, a message from about 2 years ago appears in the top of the list, followed by another one from the last week, while a bunch of messages received today aren't loaded at all.</p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, I've went too far with experimenting with my X-server... and I need the cover-up for the times it will not start... :)</p>
  
  <p>I'm suspecting that the selection of messages may be affected by the "status" or some sort of priority GMail, out of its robotic mind, is assigning to these messages - apparently, wrong. If my guess is true, can this behavior be overridden such as to load the messages in the same order they were received? This would help me a lot. Thanks in advance!</p>
  
  <p>I gave up editing somewhere more towards the middle, but, start reading from the end, you will get the idea before I gave up:</p>
  
  <pre><code>!. [   8: ***********            ] *****, *****!!! check this out(:  # Can't even find this...
   . [   0: ***********            ]                                 
  !. [  19: ***********            ] Re: Hello ****. Nice to meet you
   . [ 162: Twitter                ] ******, ***** ******, and 2 othe 
   . [  38: Vimeo                  ] Welcome to Vimeo!                  # Almost two years ago
  !. [  25: ***********            ] Re: Do you use haxe-mode still?  
  !. [  58: ***************        ] Re: wvxvw (*****) from lispforum
  !. [  26: *************          ] Re: bug#11813: Segmentation fault
   . [ 174: Open Spoon Foundation  ] Apache Flex Community Revue July 
  !. [  72: *************          ] Re: bug#11850: crash (null font)   # Second newest        (1)
  !. [  42: *************          ] Re: bug#11813: bug#11850: crash (  # Received a month ago
  !.     &lt;  17: ***********           &gt; 
  !. [  25: ACM International Confe] ICFP Programming Contest: one wee
  !. [  19: ACM International Confe] Message to attendees of ICFP 2012
  !. [  57: ***************        ] Probably no one else for ICFP    
  !. [  61: ************           ] Re: bug#11850: bug#11813: bug#118
   . [  55: ********** via LinkedIn] ת מעצב למישהו עם שנה ניסיון ומעלה
  !. [   5: ***************        ] Be wary of Dropbox and git repos
   . [  14: ACM International Confe] Task Details for ICFP 2012 Progra  # 
   . [  26: ACM International Confe] How to contact us during the Cont
   . [  14: ACM International Confe] Submission
   . [  15: ACM International Confe] Lightning Division Entry MD5 Keys
   . [  14: ACM International Confe] Underground growths
   . [  15: ACM International Confe] More Lambdas
   . [  19: ***************        ] Re: [CLSQL] OUTER JOIN             # This actually arrived before
   . [  28: ***************        ] [CLSQL] Problem with clsql-mysql.d # the patch.
   .     [  30: ************           ]                                #
   .         [  36: ***************        ]                            #                           
  !. [   2: Unblock Review Team    ] Response to your unblock appeal    # They blocked me instead of 
                                                                        # some other dude!                          
   . [  15: CouchSurfing           ] We miss you on CouchSurfing!       # Stopped counting :)
  ------------------- missing 1 message here  ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [  18: ****************       ] [CLSQL] [PATCH] Clisp portability
  ------------------- missing 1 message here  ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [  33: ***************        ] Re: [CLSQL] CLSQL Digest, Vol 56,                        
   . [  23: ***************        ] [CLSQL] Newbie troubles with the t                      
   .     [  52: ********           ]                                     
  ------------------- missing 5 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------
  !. [  20: agent.ruby@amd.com     ] AMD Game subscription update.                                  
   . [  29: *********              ] Re: hey (******)                    # This is the 57'th newest (11)
   .     [  34: *****              ]                                     # This message has 12 more 
                                                                         # responses
  ------------------- missing 25 messages here --------------------------------------------------------
   . [  91: Glassdoor              ] Lots of new jobs on Glassdoor - ma     
  !. [  21: ***************        ] Hi there                            # This is the 32'th newest (10)
  ------------------- missing 7 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [  17: **********             ] [CLSQL] Postmodern changes affecti  # Received about a year ago
   .     [  32: ********           ]                                     # 
   . [  98: **********             ] [CLSQL] clsql on cmucl under 64 bi  # This is the 25'th newest (9)
  ------------------- missing 5 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [  10: Coursera               ] Welcome to Coursera!                # This is the 19'th newest (7)
   . [   1: Machine Learning | Cour] Welcome to Machine Learning!        # This is the 20'th newest (8)
  ------------------- missing 3 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [ 146: Jobmaster.co.il        ] כוז הצעות עבודה לתאריך: 22/08/2012  # This is the 16'th newest (6)
  ------------------- missing 5 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------   
   . [  49: &lt;***************@mail.r] [CLSQL] CLSQL on ECL                # This is the 11'th newest (5) 
  ------------------- missing 2 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------                    
   . [  41: Mail Delivery Subsystem] Delivery Status Notification (Fail
  ------------------- missing 1 message here  ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [ 148: Jobmaster.co.il        ] כוז הצעות עבודה לתאריך: 23/08/2012  # This is the 6'th newest  (4)
   . [  87: Udacity                ] Udacity Newsletter - August 2012    # This is the 5'th newest  (3)
  ------------------- missing 2 messages here ---------------------------------------------------------
   . [  17: ************           ] call today                          # This is the newest       (0)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>
  
  <p>I've tried Alpine mail agent today to see if this might be related to the way GMail serves the mail, but, I'm sorry, it's the problem with Gnus, or with my configuration of it, below is the listing of roughly the same period, the same mailbox retrieved through Alpine:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    2004 Aug 13     Nisha Hitech                   (15K) Nisha Group - Recruitment &amp; Placement
      2005 Aug 14     ***** *********** via LinkedIn (13K) Join my network on LinkedIn
    N 2006 Aug 14     Glassdoor                      (34K) Lots of new jobs on Glassdoor - maybe
      2007 Aug 16     ***** ******                    (4K) Re: bug#11850: bug#11813: bug#11850: 
  *   2008 Aug 16     ***** *********                 (4K) Hi there
      2009 Aug 16     ****** ****                     (2M) Quiz - stuff
      2010 Aug 16     ****** ****                    (.6M) XML
      2011 Aug 17     ****** ****                     (1M) Updated quiz
    N 2012 Aug 17     **** *****                      (7K) [CLSQL] Postmodern changes affecting 
    N 2013 Aug 17     **** *******                    (6K) Re: [CLSQL] Postmodern changes affect
      2014 Aug 17     ****** ****                     (1M) Adjustments
      2015 Aug 17     ****** ****                    (17K) Re: Adjustments
      2016 Aug 18     ****** ****                     (1M) Updated
      2017 Aug 18     Sampler                         (9K) Error
      2018 Aug 18     ****** ****                    (.5M) Score
      2019 Aug 18     ****** ****                    (17K) Re: Score
      2020 Aug 19     donotreply@hunterhrms.com       (2K) Thank you for your CV
      2021 Aug 19     **** ******- Hiway             (18K) בהמשך לשיחתנו
      2022 Aug 19     ****** *****                   (62K) חבר ITR-משרות פיתוח פלאש
      2023 Aug 19     **** ******- Hiway             (19K) RE: בהמשך לשיחתנו
      2024 Aug 19     ***** *********                (15K) Re: Hi there
      2025 Aug 19     *** *******                     (2K) flash
      2026 Aug 19     *** *******                     (2K) sent you an email on other address
      2027 Aug 19     *** *******                     (4K) Re: sent you an email on other addres
      2028 Aug 20     ****** ****                     (8K) Fwd: Machine Learning is now live!
      2029 Aug 20     service@paypal.co.il           (10K) How to reset your PayPal password
      2030 Aug 20     service@paypal.co.il            (9K) You just changed your password
      2031 Aug 20     service@paypal.co.il            (8K) You linked your bank account to your 
      2032 Aug 20     ****** ****                     (3K) Re: Machine Learning is now live!
      2033 Aug 20     NCsoft Support                  (3K) Verify your e-mail address for your N
      2034 Aug 20     NCsoft Support                  (4K) Thank you for creating a new NCsoft M
    N 2035 Aug 20     ***** ****                     (10K) [CLSQL] clsql on cmucl under 64 bit u
      2036 Aug 20     *** *. via LinkedIn            (13K) Join my network on LinkedIn
      2037 Tuesday    Reggae                          (3K) Re: Machine Learning is now live!
    N 2038 Tuesday    Machine Learning | Coursera St  (3K) Welcome to Machine Learning!
    N 2039 Tuesday    Coursera                        (4K) Welcome to Coursera!
      2040 Tuesday    *** ******** via LinkedIn       (6K) nice meeting you
      2041 Tuesday    *** ********                    (9K) RE: Join my network on LinkedIn
      2042 Tuesday    *** ********                    (3K) RE: Join my network on LinkedIn
      2043 Tuesday    הסוכן החכם של ג'ובנט           (32K) דרוש/ה GUI FLEX Architect
      2044 Aug 19     ***** ******                    (5K) Carambola - ****
      2045 Wednesday  **** *****                      (1K) Re: Carambola - ****
      2046 Wednesday  *** ********                    (4K) RE: Join my network on LinkedIn
      2047 Wednesday  ***** ******                    (5K) Re: Carambola - ****
      2048 Wednesday  *** ********                    (4K) RE: Join my network on LinkedIn
    N 2049 Thursday   Jobmaster.co.il                (16K) ריכוז הצעות עבודה לתאריך: 22/08/2012
      2050 Thursday   ***** ******                   (17K) Re: Carambola - ****
    N 2051 Thursday   ***************@mail.ru         (7K) [CLSQL] CLSQL on ECL
      2052 Thursday   web-admin@winehq.org            (2K) Welcome to "WineHQ Forums"
      2053 Thursday   web-admin@winehq.org            (2K) Topic approved - "OpenGL renderer isn
    N 2054 Thursday   Mail Delivery Subsystem         (3K) Delivery Status Notification (Failure
      2055 Thursday   web-admin@winehq.org            (2K) Post approved - "Re: OpenGL renderer 
    N 2056 Friday     Jobmaster.co.il                (16K) ריכוז הצעות עבודה לתאריך: 23/08/2012
    N 2057 Thursday   Udacity                        (28K) Udacity Newsletter - August 2012
      2058 Friday     ggtse@gigabyte.com.tw           (5K) GIGABYTE Tech. Support Reply Notifica
      2059 Friday     web-admin@winehq.org            (2K) Post approved - "Re: OpenGL renderer 
      2060 Yesterday  ***** ******                    (5K) Re: bug#11850: bug#11813: bug#11850: 
      2061 Yesterday  *** ********                    (4K) call today
  </code></pre>