Re: OT: Re: Mail loop revisited

[XSL-List Owner <xsl-list-owner at mulberrytech dot com>]

At 29 Oct 2000 15:39 -0400, John E. Simpson wrote:
 > Just out of curiosity, what is it that causes the looping? some setting in 
 > a mail reader program?

My current theory is that the ex-subscriber's mail system is doing a
very bad job of returning undeliverable mail to the sender.

When an XSL-List post can't be delivered, possibly just because the
subscriber's mailbox is full, the subscriber's mail system typically
sends back a bounce message.  The bounce messages should be sent to
owner-xsl-list@mulberrytech.com, but some mail systems manage to send
them to the posting address, xsl-list@mulberrytech.com.  Usually the
bounce message is marked as coming from the mailer daemon or similar,
and the bounce message that is sent to the posting address just
bounces to me because the mailer daemon isn't a subscriber (and I
promptly unsubscribe the offending subscriber).  It seems likely that
the ex-subscriber's mail system was sending bounced mail back to
xsl-list@mulberrytech.com without first changing the "From:" field,
which meant that the messages were sent out again since they appeared
to be from subscribers.

Regards,


Tony Graham
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Tony Graham                            mailto:tgraham@mulberrytech.com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9632
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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