wotan(_at_)netcom(_dot_)com wrote (about autoresponders),
| Well, I use one. And I also use a noack option in it. And let people say
| they don't want auto-acknowledgements. Very few people have commented on
| getting the responder ...
Caution, list members: if you want to know how to use an autoresponder, take
advice from someone who has one set up well. Mr. "Wotan"'s is not, as you've
seen if you've ever written to him. One of his claims above is not true and
another is a guess based on information he does not have.
(I'd take the particulars up with him privately if there were a chance that
he'd listen.)
I really don't want to get into a flame war; your emails to the PROCMAIL
mailing list have always been excellent.
Many people are now instituting autoresponders via procmail to filter out
spam in a different method than the past. Most people I'd say, filter
OUT the "bad" emails (e.g., from known spammers); what some of us are now
doing is filtering IN the known to be "good" emails. The premise is this
-- so many spammers are forging email headers that it is very tedious and
too much work to keep up with them -- adding new filtration criteria to
keep up with them. So what some of us have done is filter as follows in
very general terms:
Filter IN emails from mailing lists.
Filter IN emails from known "friends".
Filter IN emails that use have a "magic word" in the "Subject:".
All other emails are bounced back to the sender with a polite email
stating the reason their email was bounced (it didn't meet the above
criteria) and how to get their email thru should they *really* want to.
And this is where the "autoresponder" may be coming into play more.
Things such a loop checking and automatically deleting emails bounced back
because the domain/user was invalid are, of course, part of the
"~/.procmailrc".
I think debating the validity of such a policy is more a matter akin to
politics or religion rather than black or white.
So while I respect your contributions to the list, I would have to
disagree with the below statement. I think it depends on the situation
and is not universally correct.
Autoresponders should be triggered by limited criteria, not by default for
all mail except that which meets limited criteria.
No offense intended, ok?
Lates!
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