Christine Quiriy <[log in to unmask]> [2004-04-06 15:06]:
> rex wrote:
> > I've settled on autonag scripts
>
> Would you mind sharing that script?

Not at all, but they require procmail & formail, which are *nix programs.
Perhaps I should look into writing them in Python because it's
multi-platform.

Procmail is a program that is intended for filtering incoming mail. The
filtering rules are specified in a file named .procmailrc. Below are the
sections of my .procmailrc that check for overquoting and lack of a topic
keyword.
=====================================================================
#~/.procmailrc
#autostrip yahoogroups ads
INCLUDERC=/home/rex/procmail/strip_yahoogroups_ad.rc

[...]

# send a nag message to poster if no topic keyword is found in subject
:0 c
# avoid mail loop
* !^X-Loop: [log in to unmask]
# make sure the message is from birdtech-l with RARS in the subject
* ^Sender.*birdtech-l
* ^Subject.*RARS
# look for any topic keyword in the subject, quit if one is found
* ! ^Subject.*ISSUES:
* ! ^Subject.*4SALE:
* ! ^Subject.*BREEDING:
* ! ^Subject.*CHAT:
* ! ^Subject.*DEBATE:
* ! ^Subject.*HEALTH:
* ! ^Subject.*MISC:
* ! ^Subject.*NEWS:
# send a nag message to the poster if no keyword is found
| (formail -X From: | formail -f -I"Subject: No topic keyword" \
    -R From: To: -A"X-Loop: [log in to unmask]"; \
    cat ~/procmail/no_topic_msg) | sendmail -oi -t

# send overquoting nag message if footer appears more than once
:0 c
# avoid possible mail loop
* !^X-Loop: [log in to unmask]
# only check messages that are from birdtech-l and have RARS in the subject
* ^Sender.*birdtech-l
* ^Subject.*RARS
# call shell script that looks for duplicate footers and sends nag message
| ~/bin/nagoverquote
 ========================================================================

The nagoverquote program called by the above is:
 ========================================================================
cat > tmp
test  `grep -c "TOPIC KEYWORDS:.*" tmp` -gt 1 && ((formail -X From: | formail -f
 -I"Subject: Overquoting" \
    -R From: To: -A"X-Loop: [log in to unmask]"; \
    cat ~/procmail/overquote_msg) < tmp | /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t)
 ========================================================================

The respective messages sent are:
=======================================================================
This is an automatically generated reminder message. No action is
required.

You apparently sent a message to the RARS/Birdtech-l list that did not
have a topic keyword in the Subject: line. The recognized keywords are:

4SALE: BREEDING: CHAT: DEBATE: HEALTH: ISSUES: MISC: NEWS:

The next time you post, please try to remember to pick a topic keyword
that is appropriate for the content of your post. Remember that the
colon ":" following the keyword is necessary for LISTSERV to recognize
the keyword.

Topics facilitate reading mail quickly. For example, a subscriber that
does not wish to read chatty posts can delete posts under the CHAT:
topic without opening them, or deselect the CHAT: topic so LISTSERV
will not send posts with that topic keyword.

This is an experimental program. If you included a topic keyword
(including the colon -- example: Subject: CHAT: new babies ) from
the above list in the subject line and still received this reminder,
please contact [log in to unmask]
=======================================================================

=======================================================================
This is an automatically generated reminder message. No action is
required.

You apparently sent a message to the RARS/Birdtech-l list that quoted
(included) irrelevant material from a prior message. Long-established
netiquette is to trim quoted posts to include just enough material to
put your reply in context.(1)

The next time you post, please try to remember to edit the post that
you are replying to, and include enough to establish what you are
replying to, but no more than that.

This is an experimental program. If you think you have received this
post after deleting irrelevant material in the post your were replying
to, please contact [log in to unmask]

(1) RFC1855 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt)
says (I recommend reading all of it if it's new to you):

  If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you
  summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just
  enough text of the original to give a context. This will make sure
  readers understand when they start to read your response. Since
  NetNews, especially, is proliferated by distributing the postings
  from one host to another, it is possible to see a response to a
  message before seeing the original. Giving context helps everyone.
  But do not include the entire original!

Another reference on netiquette:
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/
======================================================================