Yes, I have, and I now have a system I use privately within a circle of friends, and with some of my company business. Works a treat, and allows complex discussions that branch, merge, and more.
I now also have an experimental tool that imports from email threads, and re-exports back to standard email formats.
It will never be widely adopted. It's unlikely to reach a level of maturity that would make it acceptable to the muggles, but for us it is incredibly productive.
I don't have the skills, and I don't have the inclination to acquire the skills. I have more work than I have time to complete, and taking on the task of learning everything I'd need to learn to then integrate this into someone else's project is just not feasible.
Currently the tool works brilliantly, but it's not robust, and it's certainly not foolproof. It's not even average-person-proof. It's insufficiently mature, and if I were to try to integrate it with another mail tool, I wouldn't start from here ... it would need a complete re-write.
So yes, I have considered it, and with my background, skill-set, and availability, it's not going to happen.
Indeed. This is somewhat annoying in Thunderbird and nearly impossible in Outlook.
> People won't do work unless it's rewarding, or compulsory. ... I'm working on that.
Has the author been working on that? I wonder. Two years have passed, after all.