|>-----Original Message-----
|>From: Harald Alvestrand [mailto:Harald(_at_)Alvestrand(_dot_)no]
|>Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 5:41 AM
|>To: Mike O'Dell; ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
|>Subject: Relation email - person (re: Mail sent to midcom)
|>
|>I recently had the dubious pleasure of sending out 40.000
|>emails to a set of email addresses gathered (with the owners' approval!) over
|>a period of seven years.
|>
|>The result was roughly 10.000 bounces (naturally), dozens of
|>requests to merge multiple registrations for the same person, and on the
|>order of FIVE occurences of an email address previously used by one person
|>now being used by another.
|>
|>The mapping address -> person is pretty strong, and mostly single-valued.
|>The mapping person -> address is multivalued, and getting more so.
|>
|>Not quite "not working", if we take it for what it is.
I would consider such results the fault of the list maintainer and not a fault
in the email system. Much like physical addresses used within the postal
system, anyone maintaining a list needs to provide a means to maintain the
validity of the data. If the data is invalid it is a cost the person using the
data has to carry. It doesn't mean that all the data is invalid, just the
means to keep it current was inadequate. Most mailing lists for instance
employ means to maintain the integrity of the subscribtions, including regular
probes. There are means available for other types of lists, a lot depending on
the usage and value.
Darryl (Dassa) Lynch.