Re: Problem with the list?

> At 12:13 AM 3/13/2001 -0700, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
> >Please CC me on replies since it seems I'm not subscribed currently.
> 
> I added you back manually about an hour ago.

Thanks.

> >I've been dropped from this list several times now, most
> > recently around March 13.
> 
> Looking at the logs, I see that you've been dropped from the list
> twice; once on 2000-09-14 and once on 2001-02-13.  Both times
> were due to the following error:
> 
>   550 uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com... Host unknown (Name server: mail.fourthought.com.: host not found)
>
> I can't determine after the fact whether this would have been
> a DNS failure at our end or at your DNS provider.

Hmm.  I can't tell either, but should the list drop people after a single 
bounce?  The Net burps too frequently for that IMO.  I know that the mailman 
list admin software sets a configurable number of bounces after which it 
notifies the admin, which would allow that admin to check on things before 
dropping the subscriber.

> >There doesn't seem to be a human "owner" posted for this list, which is why 
> >I'm probably annoying everyone with a plea for help.
> 
> Appending "-request" to any list name at W3C will direct
> your message to the list robot and if it doesn't understand
> the message it will be forwarded to a human.

Ah.  I should have read the bot's message more carefully.  I looked for an 
"owner" address or the like.  Now I know better.

> >Anyone with any ideas?  Has this happened to anyone else?  I seem to have an 
> >XML listserv jinx as I've had various problems with XML-DEV and xsl-list, and 
> >not with any of the other 20 or more MLs I'm on.
> 
> If your DNS provider is flakey, lists with a low tolerance for
> bounces would toss you off sooner than lists with a high tolerance.

Actually, I've never been removed from these lists (that I remember), my 
problems have rather come as they switched to accept posts by subscribers only 
and then for some reason had trouble believing I was who I said I was.

> The list robot (SmartList) that runs most W3C lists will attempt to
> automatically remove an address after some number of messages bounce.
> The threshold at which it does this is adjustable on a per-list basis.
> Most of our lists have the threshold set at 4 bounces.

Ah.  I guess this is quite reasonable, except that in a high-traffic period, a 
30-second network glitch could easily lead to 4 bounces.

> While we're on this thread, let me explain briefly our current
> spam filtering mechanism since you've likely noticed several
> messages I've reposted on behalf of others.  The posting policy
> for www-rdf-interest is that anyone who is subscribed to any
> W3C list may post to www-rdf-interest.  This keeps most of the
> random spammers out.  When legitimate people post from an account
> different from one they've subscribed to our lists (and when
> non-subscribers post) their messages are redirected to my inbox.
> When I recognize that this person might be likely to post again
> from the same non-subscribed account I will manually add this
> alternate address to a list of exceptions from which mail to
> www-rdf-interst will also be accepted.

I think this a very well thought-out policy.

Thanks.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Principal Consultant
uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com               +1 303 583 9900 x 101
Fourthought, Inc.                         http://Fourthought.com 
4735 East Walnut St, Ste. C, Boulder, CO 80301-2537, USA
Software-engineering, knowledge-management, XML, CORBA, Linux, Python

Received on Tuesday, 13 March 2001 09:33:19 UTC