Two things:
1) To the extent that my ignorance of mechanics of
SMTP may have caused a certain... off-topic drift
over the last couple of days, I offer a sincere
apology to the list as a whole.
2) I'm still troubled by an anomaly in the notion
that 550 -> less spam.
All other things being equal, I'm usually the
first one on the "We need more data" bandwagon.
But it seems to me that there is a very large
base of information (though not true "data")
pertinent to the question and ready-to-hand.
As the 'Net user base has grown over the last,
say, 5-10 years, I daresay that the number of
550s thrown between servers has also grown. I
would hazard a guess that the number of 550s
has, at the very least, grown as some (unknown)
monotonically-increasing function of the number
of users.
(In the only case for which I have detailed
knowledge, there are at least 10 different email
addresses that legitimately throw a 550 for me,
because I've changed ISPs, left the company, etc.
There may be more, but there are at least 10.)
Now, for all I know, a 10:1 ratio may very well
be atypical [high or low]. But the thing that
keeps buggin' me is this: if there is a robust,
substantive inverse relationship between 550s
and spam volume, how has it managed to elude
detection this long, given the sustained growth
in 550s? (Call me cynical, but I sorta doubt
that it's the result of great QA on those
every-email-address-on-the-planet CDs.)
(Though I might be wrong...) :-)
- Terry
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