Anita said:
 
>     bellmail: cannot append to /usr/spoo/mail/robertso
>     bellmail: cannot create // dead letter
>     bellmail: error closing file: Bad file number
>     550<[log in to unmask] Insufficient Permission
 
>    What does it mean, "insufficient permission"? Can I send it back to the
> Mailer-Daemon and get a human answer on what has happened? I have tried this
> approach before and only gotten confused messages back, such as "no humans
> here".
 
Jim has given you a brief explanation of this mumbo-jumbo.  I'll
try to give some more general advice on handling bounced mail
from the list.  I'm sending it to the list because I think there
are a number of new list owners here who may find this useful.
 
It really isn't necessary to understand most error messages.
Almost all can be paraphrased: Your message did not get
delivered.  The important information is who the subscriber is.
(It is amazing to me that some systems send bounces from which it
is almost impossible to who the message was sent to.)  In your
case, the subscriber is clear.
 
This is enough for many owners.  They may wait a day or two to
see if the problem goes away.  If not, they delete the
subscriber.
 
Other owners (including me) try a bit harder to keep subscribers.
I categorize error messages into two kinds: deleted users and
other.  If the error message indicates that the account does not
exist ("unknown user" is often the wording) then I delete the
subscription.  I get a lot of these during the summer as the
accounts that people had during the school year are terminated.
 
Other error messages usually indicate some sort of problem on the
receiving machine.  For these I have a form letter I send to the
postmaster.  The purpose of the letter is two-fold: first, to let
them know they have a problem so they can fix it.  Second, I want
to know if it is a temporary problem--if so I'll delay deleting
the subscriber.  (The length of time I'll wait depends on the
number of bounce messages I'm receiving.  I wait much longer on
our low-volume lists than those that run 50-100 per day.)
 
The bounce messages we get are generated automatically by
programs, but every system is supposed to have a real human in
charge of the mail who can be reached as "postmaster" on the
system.  Thus, if you want to follow up on the error from Beloit,
write to:  [log in to unmask]
 
Mail to [log in to unmask] might also work to reach the
human, but the postmaster address is the standard way which is
supposed to work.
 
I find that most postmasters try to be helpful.  They are busy
people and their messages tend to be short, like "It's fixed" or
"This machine has been shut down, you can remove the
subscribers."  They often apologize for their incomprehensible
error messages, but they really don't have time to explain them.
By "most," I mean more than 50 percent.  There are lots of
systems from which I don't get an answer from the postmaster.
 
Attached below is the form letter I use.  I have a macro that
puts the error message at the end and sends it for me.  Sending
one of these takes under 30 seconds.
 
                          Peace,  Dan
 
<<  Daniel D. Wheeler          Internet:  [log in to unmask]  >>
<<  University of Cincinnati     Bitnet:  wheeler@ucbeh       >>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++< attachment >+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Postmaster,
 
I am the list owner for several mailing lists connected with the
KIDLINK Project.  We use the LISTSERVer at North Dakota State
University for these lists.
 
Attached below is an error message I received from the LISTSERVer
indicating a mail problem in the distribution of a message from
one of our lists.  Can you give me any more information about the
cause of the problem and the expected duration?  I hate to remove
subscribers from our lists if the problem is about to be
resolved.
 
I would appreciate your help.  When a system is failing, I get an
error message for each message we send out to each subscriber on
the failed system.  If the address(es) to which the message was
sent is no longer valid, please let me know so that I can remove
the address(es) from our list.
 
Thanks for your help.
 
                          Peace,  Dan
 
<<  Daniel D. Wheeler          Internet:  [log in to unmask]  >>
<<  University of Cincinnati     Bitnet:  wheeler@ucbeh       >>
 
P.S.  Our lists include KIDLINK, KIDCAFEx, KIDLEADx, KIDPROJ,
KIDPLAN, KIDPLAN2, RESPONSE, KIDFORUM and KIDTEST.   Richard
Naylor <[log in to unmask]> and I share ownership duties for
these lists.
 
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