response_shape is one of the fields on a draft: opinion, decision, review, info, or FYI. Which ask you want is a writing problem. What RelayLink does with FYI is a product one.
No reply is owed
An FYI is "you should have this." It is not a question sitting in their inbox until they answer.
thread_status therefore does not leave it awaiting them forever. Once it has been seen, the thread is idle.
Seen means one of three things, the same three as everywhere else:
- Their assistant called
get_package - Someone pressed acknowledged
- They replied anyway
A fetched package link does not count. An opened portal page does not count. Those happen without a person deciding anything.
If you were sent an FYI, acknowledging is what lets an email-only recipient close it at all — they have no assistant to pull it.
A reply is still a reply
The shape is not a lock. They can write back. The thread then has a new latest package, and the ordinary rule applies to that one.
Do not send an FYI when you need a decision. The status will tell you the thread is idle, and you will follow up as if they had ignored a question they were never asked.
Yourself
A package addressed to your own address is a hand-off between assistants. You are the only participant, so you are always the last sender. The general rule would report awaiting them for the rest of time.
Instead: awaiting you until one of your assistants pulls the latest package, then idle. Whatever shape you gave it. A hand-off is an FYI to yourself.
No notification email. There is nobody else to mail.
When to pick it
When the useful next move is that they have the context, not that they owe you a sentence. Status updates, a document you already decided, a copy of something their other assistant will need.
When you want an answer, pick the shape that says so. The thread will keep saying awaiting them until they have actually dealt with it — and "dealt with" will still not mean a mail scanner.