[OKDXA] Mailman info.

[RGA]

Hi all OKDXA folks.

These just came in from Tim.  FYI

Bob 73 es gud dx



While we're at it I want to remind everyone about spam complaints system 
from AOL users and how it effects us.

If an AOL user tags a message from one of our lists as spam, it's sent off 
to a computer at AOL that keeps track of these complaints and if enough of 
them are logged, we get black listed at AOL.

To avoid getting black listed every couple of weeks (which used to happen) 
we have an agreement with them to stop sending mail to anyone that 
complains.  Believe it or not, I get copies of at least 5 of these 
complaints a week.  As per the agreement, I remove the offending address 
from every list they are subscribed to.

I don't understand why they mark mail from us as spam (since they did 
subscribe to our lists), but it's possible they:
(1) have no concept of how the AOL reporting system works
(2) are too lazy to unsubscribe
(3) don't like the individual posting or poster
(4) have no concept what spam really is
(5) are totally clueless and using the spam button for a delete button

At any rate, they get removed.  So if you get complaints from an AOL user 
about getting dumped from all his subscriptions, this is probably the reason 
and they can check with me.

Tim


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The auto removal of bouncing addresses is a feature in mailman.  It is 
described in the manual which can be found by using the link at the bottom 
of all postings to this list.

It works like this:

The server tries for 24 hours to send a message before it is returned to the 
list that sent it.  By default the number of DAYS (not postings) of bouncing 
mail is set to 5.  We also set the period that the 5 days of bounces can 
occur to 30.  The last setting is how many warnings is sent (3) and how 
often (1 per week).

So, if a member of a list has 5 days of bouncing mail in a 30 day period, 
mail to him is put on hold.  He will be sent the warning message every week 
for 3 weeks before he is unsubscribed.  If he responds to the warning 
message before it expires his subscription will be reinstated immediately. 
If he doesn't respond, he can re-subscribe himself which may be inconvenient 
but isn't the end of the world.

Using the default settings a member can have about a month of bouncing mail 
before he is actually removed from the list.  Note that this is more than 
adequate time to have transient problems resolved.

Note that Al and I both feel that these settings should not be increased to 
keep bouncing addresses on your lists since this only increases the load on 
the mailman server trying to send mail over and over to bouncing addresses. 
This is especially true for high volume lists since 20 posts a day to 3 or 4 
bouncing addresses can quickly fill our mail queue with mail for bad 
addresses, and make retries go sky high.

This deal with ARRL server is unfortunate and it's too bad if these folks 
can't understand that them being removed is either their fault for not 
responding to the warning message (regardless if their spam filter caught it 
or not) or the fault of the spammers that overloaded the ARRL servers and 
cause them to be unreachable.  It is not the fault of the list admins or the 
mailman server.

Personally, I've had enough abuse from clueless people over the years and if 
I get a nastygram from someone like that I normally just delete it.  If they 
can't act like an adult and be reasonable, I'm not going to make much effort 
to help them.

Hopefully this has addressed the question at hand.

Tim


At 08:05 AM 8/24/2007, David A. Lane, KG4GIY wrote:

>We could have an interesting and informative debate about email, address 
>structure and mailing lists and their management.  After all, we all have a 
>horse in the race in some form or another, however, what I was trying to 
>indicate was that there was a set of mass deletions occurring at the same 
>time across various lists.  This, to me indicated a problem.
>
>As Tim pointed out, this is probably due to the "time out" feature that 
>after so many failed bounces, the system kills the account.  This, of 
>course, is the mark of a good system, regardless of the frustrations that 
>we as admins have to deal with in terms of the fall out from our sometimes 
>less than sophisticated customers who "suddenly" find themselves off the 
>reflector.  The resulting email to admins contains some rather nasty words 
>and plenty of ill feelings that have to be smoothed over etc, etc, etc.
>
>What I was trying to determine and I did not ask it well is: was this a 
>"feature" (which it seems to be) or a "bug."  As we have all chased the 
>tails of various email issues (like AOL rejecting any mailing list message, 
>regardless of origin or bounce notices winding up in the spam filters and 
>being ignored or dropped as routine), the more information the better.
>
>Since it seems to be related to @arrl.net addresses, and since it seems to 
>have been localized, I can report back to my list, sooth my customers and 
>move on to the next disaster du jour.
>
>DAVID

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