On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 15:39, Jeff Lasman <blists@???> wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 27, 2011 04:12:14 AM Jan Ingvoldstad wrote:
>
> > The mailing list application might disable the subscription, that is, set
> > it not to receive further messages, after too many such bounces. Mailman
> > has options for handling this.
> >
> > Unfortunately, mailing lists are not necessarily applications.
> >
> > Assuming that they are will not lead to enlightenment.
> >
> > While I'm sure we can agree that, in an ideal world, mailing lists should
> > be intelligent software, handling this deftly and accurately, we as mail
> > exchange operators _cannot assume_ that this is the case.
>
> My intended point is that if they're sending bounces for years they're not
> playing by the rules, and I really don't want them. They may not be what
> you
> call spammers, they may not even be what I call spammers, but they're
> certainly sending unwanted email and I've got no way to stop them other
> than
> to block them. Once they receive a bounce they should do something.
> They've
> been receiving bounces for years.
>
I don't know how large a site you operate, but let's say that you have a few
tens of thousands of users at least. Here is a scenario:
Maybe five of these are subscribing to the mailing list in question.
Then one of those addresses stops functioning for some reason or other, you
send bounces, and the mailing list does not suspend mailing to the address,
perhaps because the bounces get caught by a spam filter or the mailing list
operator misguidedly configured the list software otherwise or didn't read
the bounce messages for some reason or other.
You then proceed to block messages from that list, stopping legitimate
messages from reaching your remaining four users using that list.
Some time passes, and they perceive your service as unreliable. They take
their business elsewhere, and tell their friends.
You lose business.
I don't think I'm breaking email delivery when I'm refusing email with a
> note
> explaining why.
>
> Saying otherwise, in my opinion, is saying I need to accept all the email
> that
> comes into my systems.
>
> So where am I wrong?
>
It appears that at least part of that question is answered here:
http://www.glasswings.com.au/comics/ozyandmillie.au/2000/om20000723.html
--
Jan
