>Date:         Wed, 24 Jun 1992 16:47:47 EDT
>From:         Paul Hyland <[log in to unmask]>
 
***
>More generally, I was wondering what strategies people had for purging
>bad addresses from their lists.   I have a quickly growing, relatively new
>list, and have gotten all forms of bounce messages from at least 15 addresses
>recently (but usually only one).  Would you delete addresses that keep bouncing
>two or three times?  (I know that some of these are only temporarily bad).
>I may sound naive, but the volatility of the net is surprising even me, along
>with the variety of gateways and links and mailers and....
>
>Paul Hyland
>Owner, CPSR list
 
I find it a vexing problem. There must be many individual solutions.
If Delivery Error Messages on different messages arrive from the same
source on more than two consecutive days, or if the message explicitly
states "user unknown," I usually set the subscriber's option to
"nomail" and transfer his address and the date to a special text file
that I keep open on my own hard disk.
 
After about a week I set the option back to "mail" and wait to see
what happens. If new "bounce" messages are generated, I delete the
subscriber from the list.
 
Individual solutions to the problem must depend on the volume of
traffic and the personal resources of the Owner.
 
I would like to see a summary of responses.
 
-Rafe-
 
R.R. Ronkin, VITA Volunteer
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
<vita@gmuvax> or <[log in to unmask]>
Owner, devel-l and dnn-l