RE: List Admin Issue: Emails bouncing back to the sender.

[xml-dev-help@lists.xml.org]

I'm sorry folks, I didn't mean to start a discussion of email systems on
a list devoted to XML discussions.  There are certainly better forums
for such a discussion.

I'd be happy to continue this discussion privately with anyone that
wishes, and point you at other forums if you're interested.

Since I'm already replying this time I'll comment a bit on the
following.

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, Dylan Walsh wrote:
    
    How is their email system broken? If they have set their software so
    that it responds to all incoming messages with a "Out of Office" reply,
    then that is what their software will do.

Previously you were speaking about failed mail messages, not "vacation"
messages.  "Vacation" messages are a different animal entirely.
Although there are two widely accepted practices for creating "vacation"
notices, the real issue is that there is no standard.  Thus, as a
recipient, you need to expect to receive such messages and you need to
setup your mailbox (via filters or whatever) to process them.

Failed mail messages should be sent to the envelope from address, not
the message header.  Mail systems that fail to do this are broken, or at
least they are not conformant with the standards.

    The problem is the we are
    getting them rather than the list, when it is the list that is sending
    them the messages.

By the way, this list does filter them, when it sees them and when it
recognizes them.  Recognizing them is its own problem, since without a
standard it's a cat-and-mouse game to identify all the variations.
However, generally what is happening is you personally are getting them
and the list system is never seeing them.

    The XSL List has this header:
    Reply-To: xsl-list@lists.mulberrytech.com
    
    Why not use that on this list?

Yes, well, this presents a different set of issues.  Certainly the list
could do this but I personally would discourage it.  The reply-to is for
the originator to indicate where they want replies to go.  There is a
position that argues that when a list changes this value it is presuming
it knows better than the originator.  In addition, the processing of a
Reply-To header is itself not uniform, although it's certainly better
than that of vacation notices.

On the other hand, it would probably mostly fix what you want with
respect to vacation notices although it would change the behavior of
list responses and the actions email clients take when responding to
messages.  This may be fine if everyone knows it and expects it, but a
transition to it would require some getting used to.

Enjoy.