Valdis Kletnieks <[log in to unmask]> wrote on 08/15/2006 04:21:51 
PM:

> Eric Allman got this right in vacation.c well over 20 years ago, andmost 
other
> packages have also managed to figure out how to *not* respond to 
> mail sent from
> a list (hint - if the Return-Path: matches owner-* or *-request, you 
probably
> don't want to OoO it).

Another pattern to *NOT* respond to would be any message with something in 
square brackets like, oh say, [LISTSRV-L] in the subject.  :)  If it's not 
a list, it's probably tagged as possible spam.
 
> For the N software writers out there, we've already gotten N-3 or so to 
DTRT.
> There's only 1 vendor with any significant market share who can't seem 
to get
> this one right.  If you need a hint who - it's the same 800 pound 
gorilla that
> doesn't seem to feel a need to comply with other RFCs either.

IBM/Lotus has the right idea.  For each time you activate the the OoO 
agent, Notes only responds once per sender.  For all its other flaws as a 
mail system, at least it won't start an message storm of out of office 
messages.

As for the 800 lb gorilla, I just wish they would stop hiding actual error 
messages, such as the text returned after a 4xx or 5xx response.  Makes 
troubleshooting delivery problems difficult.