[marcmac]

The difference is caused by the size of the From column - in message view, we only need to display one name, since a message can only come from one person.

In conversation view, however, there are almost always multiple senders, since there are multiple messages (and you are usually amongst the senders, if you participate in the conversation at all.)

When you are in conversation view, we show all the senders (or, as many as we can, elided) - even if the messages they sent aren't in the inbox (the conversation can span folders, remember. When switching to message view, only the messages in the inbox (or whatever folder) are shown - so, for instance, in your first hilighted message (Meeting Tonight) both participants (Lucien and yourself) show up in conv view, but only Lucien in message view (since your reply is probably in your sent folder, not the inbox).