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[xsl] Changes to the List Software

2014-04-29 12:02:22
To Subscribers to XSL-List: 

In the next little while (later today or perhaps tomorrow) the
software behind the list will change. You may notice a few 
cosmetic changes in list messages. If you notice any problems
please let me know. 


The triggering reason for the change is explained by the 
list management service:

A week or so ago, Yahoo changed their DMARC
policy to "reject" in the name of fighting spam.  AOL did the same
just yesterday.  This essentially means that the email address in
the From: header needs to come from the actual network of that
address, i.e., any email from user(_at_)yahoo(_dot_)com needs to be delivered
by Yahoo's mail servers if the recipient provider is checking DMARC,
and the major ISPs AOL/Yahoo/Gmail/MSN are.

This breaks discussion list deliveries (for all listserves) to the
major ISPs for Yahoo, and now AOL, posters.  Digest deliveries do
not break because the originating message is from an
@lists.mulberrytech.com adminstrative address.


This is an interesting move by Yahoo and now AOL.  It was deployed
by Yahoo with no warning.  The DMARC specification is only a draft,
not an RFC, and so Yahoo is essentially strong-arming everyone into
compliance.  DMARC itself makes no recommendations about accommodating
discussion lists, in fact acknowledges that they break.  It is clearly
a case of knowingly breaking service for discussion list subscribers
(whom I suspect have been using them for a long time) because the spam
problem is bigger.


The new tool will: 

rewrite a from address like this:

From: Joe User <joeuser(_at_)yahoo(_dot_)com>

to this:

From: "Joe User joeuser(_at_)yahoo(_dot_)com" 
<xsl-list-service(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>

This makes it more clear who the sender is, meets the DMARC
requirements, and does not change the behavior of a subscriber reply
because your lists have the Reply-To: header set to be the list
posting address.


There will be some trade-offs: 
- The current digest format orders the messages by subject.  The
 new system would be chronological.
- The new system would present each post as an in-line attachment,
 and thus should fix character set display issues.
- Digests would be generated at a specified time overnight (not
 configurable, initially).

It doesn’t look like we have much choice, and Biglist has assured
me that they will be available to deal with challenges as they 
arise. 

So, please let me know if you have difficulties as the tool under
XSL-List changes. 

— Tommie

====================================================================== 
B. Tommie Usdin                        
mailto:btusdin(_at_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com    
17 West Jefferson Street                           Phone: 301/315-9631 
Suite 207                                    Direct Line: 301/315-9634 
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in XML and SGML               
======================================================================


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