On Sun, 29 Oct 2000 13:21:33 -0000, Michael Quinion <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>That would seem to conflict with the information in the list
>owner's manual, which says the parameter in in the Auto-Delete
>Probe() is "the number of days to wait between probes for any
>given user". I took that to be an absolute number of days, not
>linked to the number of times I post. Or am I misunderstanding
>something here?

Passive probes can only be sent in regular messages posted to the list.  The
value of N is the 'number of days' IF your list has daily traffic.  IF the list
does not have daily traffic (e.g. a once-weekly newsletter) then the N value is
the denominator of a fraction of total list subscribers that are 'probed'
whenever you send a posting.  i.e. 1/27 of your list will be probed each time
you send a posting.  To probe everybody will take 27/27 or 27 postings or 27
weeks (~6 months) at once/week.

This also assumes the list of subscribers remains static for 6 months which may
not be a good assumption.

This section of the manual will be revised somewhat in the next addition.