On Thu, 21 Jul 1994 17:38:05 -0500 Ol' blue eyes
<[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>        But it didn't do it before 1.8, did it?
 
It  did it  since 1.7f.  LMail  didn't translate  SMTP's delivery  errors
before 1.2a.
 
>        Seems to  me that its handling  of this sort of  error, which is
>        usually much less of a  problem than systems holding undelivered
>        messages  for  X days  before  telling  the listowner  about  it
>        (grrrrrr...), is unduly harsh and arbitrary.
 
Then disable it. Some people have  time and patience with broken systems,
some can't afford to be that patient.
 
>        It's  *easy*  to set  a  bad  address  nomail, so  'renew'  will
>        eventually delete it, or delete it.
 
Most lists do not use "renew", and a  user that got set NOMAIL is as good
as a signed  off user. In fact,  setting NOMAIL would be  even worse. The
user, not  seeing any mail, would  send a SUBSCRIBE command,  and be told
he's already  on the list.  Ah well,  looks like everyone's  on vacation.
With a clean deletion, he can at least re-subscribe.
 
>        OTOH, there's  nothing to do  except grin  and bear it  when you
>        know that you'll  be getting bounce messages  from somewhere for
>        the next X days.
 
There's not much LISTSERV can do about it.
 
>        WRT the  specific address that  caused me to write,  it's ironic
>        that I  received a personal  note from  the very same  person at
>        almost exactly the same time  that the auto-deletion message got
>        here.
 
Call it ironic if you will, I  call it sad. There is nothing particularly
difficult with  making a system  that does  exist (and accounts  which do
exist) look like they  do indeed exist, even when the  machine is down or
the links are down. I don't believe any of the systems I manage ever gave
a LISTSERV the opportunity to delete a  user that did exist. All it takes
is the same level of attention  when updating your configuration that you
use when writing  a check or the  like. If you wrote a  check for $50,000
when you  meant to  write $50  and the  bank bounced  it and  locked your
account, you  wouldn't say  they've been harsh,  you'd think  "Darn, that
will teach me to be more  careful when writing checks, I really shouldn't
make such mistakes!" The  bottom line is that there is  no excuse for not
having  a working  setup. Blaming  LISTSERV for  following the  advice it
received really doesn't  accomplish much. On the other hand,  if a system
administrator  meets a  mob of  angry  users at  his door  every time  he
doesn't pay attention when updating his system, there is a good chance he
will learn.
 
  Eric