In short, my problem is that the Activity History related list on a custom object only shows tasks whose status is Completed. If I create or amend a task so its status is Pending then it does not appear on the list. I would all tasks to show so that people can pick off Pending tasks and complete them. Seems a not unreasonable requirement :-)

To give a bit more information. I was asked add incoming and outgoing email functionaility to a custom object. The outgoing part is easy, using the inbuilt button on the Activity History list. To handle incoming email, I have created an email service which adds tasks to the custom object showing that an email has been received, with the description being the body of the email. The tasks are created successully but only show on the Actiivity History list if their status is Completed. I need them to also show if they have status of Pending, so people can identify them and act on them (typically, reply to the email).

I made the service create tasks, following SF's own documention on incoming email services, but I do wonder if this is the best way. Apart from the above problem, another concern I have is whether tasks will be visible to all revelant users or whether they are private to the creator/assignee.

Maybe I need to take another approach?