Some domains (tendancy in corporate world) have
decided to implement a mail policy of restricting the
number of  recipients of a piece of email  to a number
n (say 20).  In doing so they also establish a policy
of acknowledging receipt of the message, then turning
around and discarding the message without delivering
to a single recipient ( firewall listens for and
accepts connection, mx points to another server for
email, firewall limits to less than 20 recipients)
(comments anyone? - what are the rules and are they
violating them - since there are no real rules is the
common wisdom shifting to accept such techniques -
anyone condoning this practise? ).  Is anyone aware of
how big the problem is?  There does not appear to be a
way to detect that a domain is doing this, so the
assumption is that all of the email has arrived
without a problem.

Is it feasible to set up a list of domains that are
implementing this policy - any volunteers?

Typically I have discovered this only through
persistent complaint a single subscriber to me, then
through their ISP whom on ocassion I have been able to
contact. In one instance the postmaster wasn't even
aware of the policy until we set up a series of tests
for him. Only then did he discover that his ISP had
set the policy for anti-spam purposes on the corporate
firewall (how nice of them to make assumptions,
establish policies and not bother their postmaster
with the information).

How pervasive a problem is this?
What is the common wisdom on such anti-spamm
techniques?

Does it really solve anything?

Any other anti-spamm nasties that will surprise list
owners?

How ever can we detect that this might be happening?
Do other listowners throttle their recipients as a
policy or on a case by case basis?

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