[geeks] ADMINISTRIVIA: Changes to mail delivery policies

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 02:33:44 (-0600), Bill Bradford wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [geeks] ADMINISTRIVIA: Changes to mail delivery policies
>
> Until then, I have to spend at least 45 minutes a day dealing with
> HUNDREDS of "Delivery Status Notification", etc, emails generated by
> subscribers of that list and broken mail hosts.

Why do you spend any time at all dealing with bounces from subscribers
who have gone unreachable?  See below for what should happen to them....

> Imagine this:
> 
> - Person subscribes to list, with address hosted on Exchange server, or with
>   address with Exchange server as primary MX.
> - Person's email breaks somehow.
> - Primary MX host (Exchange, remember?) sends "Delivery Status Notification"
>   every few hours about the email its trying to deliver, *if* my end was able to
>   even hand off the mail to the MX at all.
> - Say, minimum of four DSNs a day.  Per email that my end sends, and the 
>   list puts out, oh, 10-20 emails a day.
> - Multiply by four days.

If that's what you're worried about then either you've adjusted the
wrong parameter, or I've assumed you've adjusted the wrong parameter.

If all the MXers are unreachable then the message is in your queue and
no DSN of any sort is sent anywhere until the five days has expired, at
which time your MLM software gets one single copy -- not you, but your
MLM.  If I'm not mistaken most modern MLM packages have the ability to
automatically unsubscribe or suspend any address that gets more than a
given number of bounces.  The human list manager should never even peek
at these messages unless a manual complaint is sent about someone being
unsubscribed accidentally.

Adjusting your own MTA's queue retry time limit will not defer one
single DSN that comes from any other queue.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;  <gwoods at acm.org>;  <g.a.woods at ieee.org>;  <woods at robohack.ca>
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