>
> I have  no problem with  that -  who the robot  writes to and  under what
> conditions is clearly up  to you. However, if you DO  write such a robot,
> it should identify its messages as being from a robot.
 
And I have no problem with that notion.  I'm not writing a robot, though,
I'm hoping to find out a general rule of thumb that robot tools could
follow -- a rule to avoid mail to mailing lists when the human so desires.
 
> >I belong to  a lot of mailing  lists, some Listserv, some  others, and I
> >cannot think of a  single mailing list that would want  me to inform all
> >the members of my absence for every message someone posts to the list.
>
> I can  think of  a lot of  mailing lists  where I'd want  a copy  of your
> vacation/sickness notice as list owner, and  a handful of lists where I'd
> want the  whole list informed  (once of  course - most  vacation programs
> already know not to send multiple  notices to any given address)......
 
Well, that's fine, but I suspect a moment's reflection would reveal that
that is not the common case.  Of the 800,000 subscribers to several
thousand mailing lists, the situation you describe is not the norm.
CWIS-L, NOTIS-L, L-VMCTR, or even LSTSRV-L -- most subscribers have
only a casual relationship to most lists, and their fellow subscribers
do not want to see an "I am on vacation" reply.  It's simply not
relevant to the fellow subscribers. In those cases where a list is not
configured to toss self-identified robot mail, I don't want my robot to
mail it in the first place.
 
My prediction is that we're going to see combined filter / auto-reply
robots become more popular over time. Seems to me we need both answers --
a standard for auto-reply tools to self-identify, and a standard for
mailing list managers to do likewise.
 
/rich