On Wed, Oct 22, 2003 at 07:18:58PM +0200, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> of course we should, if upstream's default is broken. (Like sending
> out monthly reminders for mailman lists, which I've turned off.)
Erm, I had always presumed that was Mailman's way of doing automatic
culling of bad email addresses from the list. From my experience running
lists with Listar the most effcient way to deliver messages is to have them
batch delivered. However batch delivered messages do not have individual
markers in the message to denote when a particular address is invalid. In
cases when an address is forwarding to another address this can be hard for
mail admins to track it down and for bounce handlers to handle. The solution
then is to send out periodic customized messages to each individual. It is
lest efficient but with a customized bounce you'd know which address cause it
regardless of any forwards or rewriting along the way.
In fact, this is exactly what it is used for. From Mailman's main page:
"Monthly password reminders serve additional purposes though: they remind you
of lists you are on which you may have forgotten about, they remind you about
how to get unsubscribed from such lists, and they offer an opportunity for
lists to cull their membership of non-functioning addresses. In Mailman 2.1,
the monthly reminders can be sent out with VERP-like envelopes, Mailman can
unambiguously parse any bounces from dead addresses, and can use this
information to automatically disable or delete disappeared members."
This is a *good thing* and should be left enabled.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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