On Tue, 16 Nov 93 13:53:32 EST you said:
>> I think that node ERAU.DB.ERAU.EDU's mail setup is messed up.  Badly.
>> (I also think that the word "badly" is an understatement here......)
 
...my other post (no, rantings) deleted.
 
>I sat in my office all day thinking about how to respond to this...
>You first come off saying that the mail setup is badly messed up, and
>did you send a message to the postmaster (me) at this site asking about
>it or for help with the problem? No you send a flame to everyone and
>their mother about how screwed up our mail setup is here... You
>assumed that it was this site's admin's fault... You obviously didn't
>even know if it was an isolated case since you asked if anyone else
>was having the same trouble... And as it turns out it was all because
>of a .forward file that was transferred with some other stuff during a
>ftp session and the problem was fixed before I even arrived today...
 
Even though this was sent to me directly, I feel like I should respond
publicly since I flamed your site's mailer...............
 
You are correct.  It was late at night, I was tired, I saw this problem
and blew up.  It was an isolated incident and I badly over-reacted.  Did
I investigate as deeply as I should?  No.  Did I start flaming people and
or sites?  Yes.  Was I being unreasonable?  Yes.  Should I calm down and
count to 10 before sending mail like this again?  Yes.
 
>        I am a student here and am barely getting by, this job is very
>important to me since it's my source of income... But since I'm a
>student and not a full time staff member my status as an employee here
>is very shaky... Your flame blast assaulting my capabilities very well
>could of jeopardized my job here... I did not appreate your statements
>when you did nothing to ask for help from us... I could of, very
>easily, stopped it there this morning if homboe didn't already do
>it...
 
I apologize.  I am more than willing to tell your superiors that I acted
in an irrational manner.  You can show them my posts to enforce this
opinion.  The problem was 1/5 your user getting a .forward file, 4/5s
myself over-reacting.  I received mail from homboe this morning stating
he had fixed the problem.....however it was after I had sent a (yet
another) flaming letter to the lists of which I was getting mail from.
Homboe, you and your site have every reason to flame back at me.
 
This apology is both to yourself (for flaming your system before attempting
to contact "[log in to unmask]") and to homboe.
 
>        I'd just wish that ppl out there would once in a while stop
>and think every so often instead of jumping up and down pointing
>fingers... I would also like to ask you, how did that .forward file
>get in with the other ftp stuff??? What are you going to do when
>someone else ftp's that same file and the same things happens again???
 
The account FTP gets mail ever so often.  All public FTP files are located
in /pub.  The only files in the root directory are .forward, .profile
(which is non-readable), /bin, /etc. /lib, /logs, /pub and /usr.  Why
is a .forward being FTPed anyway?  It would have to be a specific request
because MGET *.* or MGET * will not get it (though MGET .* will).  I have
not had this problem but once (now) since Jan 23, 1993....the date the
file was created.  However, since I have now had this problem I am moving
the file to another location and creating a symbolic link to there which
will prevent anyone from FTPing the .forward file again....yet still allowing
the .forward file to forward mail.
 
Once again, it was a user error.  The user happened to be myself for
over-reacting.  I apologize for stating that your mail system was screwed
up.  It was not.  Feel free to post this (and previous) message(s) on
your bulletin board under the title "How *not* to Respond to Mail Problems".
 
-- Jf