I shifted the WORLDWIDEWORDS list Auto-Delete from =Full-auto to =No this weekend in order to find and deal with a number of bounces that LISTSERV was unable to identify because they were being forwarded from an intermediate address. That worked fine. What puzzled and alarmed me was the number of errors that arrived in my mailbox, some 300 messages at last count relating to about 400 bounces. These were nearly all "User unknown" and related fatal errors. However, the daily error monitoring report never lists more than about 25 addresses. Does this suggest there might be some problem with the way I've configured the list? The list is announce-only, with one message a week posted. I've set the list to actively probe subscribers, with the setting being * Auto-Delete= Yes,Full-Auto,Delay(18),Max(2),Probe(27) My understanding is that this should result in any bouncing address being cleared down within a month. However, those annoying forwarded bounces have been appearing for more than three months. Again, does this suggest that I've set some parameter wrongly? I also have * Renewal= 3-monthly,Delay(7),Probe -- Michael Quinion Editor, World Wide Words <[log in to unmask]> <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>