At 01:53 PM 2/14/98 -0500, Timothy J Luoma wrote:
Are the messages sent through Bayview set to Reply-To the procmail list?
They should be
They are not. But just as importantly, Procmail isn't a visibly addressed
item on the mirrored messages, so the procmail list doesn't get the replies
- contrary to the usual result when replying on Procmail.
People who reply-ALL on posts to what otherwise look like procmail messages
won't be directing the replies to the procmail list.
This is not a large function change, it is a small one.
Well, I guess that depends on whether you think changing the addressing of
messages on procmail makes a big or little difference. Not an argument,
just an expression of a different point of view: with four affected
messages in the span of little more than 20 minutes last night, this did
not look like this was shaping up to be a little change to the list.
When someone does something like this and doesn't participate (only reads),
there isn't a problem - but when they DO participate, then the list acts
different.
I would think that if I replied to one of these messages, and explicitly
directed a copy to the procmail list, that the list would then get TWO
copies (one from me, and another from the mirror - apparently with the same
messageid, but still routed different). Or does the mirror not relay the
replys back to the REAL list, in which case people post replies they
THOUGHT would be public, but instead go into a private mailbox?
And the listadmin for the "official" list seems to have vanished from it
Just because Stephen isn't actively participating in the list doesn't mean
that mirrors and relays, etc. should just be put into place without
consulting the others on the list first. In absense of a single leader, a
consensus should at least be sought from the regular participants,
otherwise anarchy becomes the rule of the land...
news2mail might be a good tool for hosting a mailing list which also runs
through a newsgroup, but most all references I've seen to using mail2news
for lists are in reference to gateing one's OWN mailing list to news. The
usual use for mail2news is for allowing someone to participate in a
newsgroup discussion from a mail-only type client. It may even be fine for
doing what this individual is doing (though, in absense of any announcement
to the contrary, the relay shouldn't necessarily be tied to the one user
who posted through it - there could easily be an entire community on the
other side), but the various issues with its use in this environment should
be considered first before launching it on the list.
No discussion was really necessary.
An announcement would have been nice.
No permission was needed (and who would give it, since the official admin
has disappeared?)
The last I saw SRB on this list was on 08 Aug, when he posted a reply to
Era about interest in someone taking over maintenance of the
procmail-request (subscription) duties.
And as I mentioned above, a consensus could have been obtained.
No authority is needed.
In fact I remember seeing somewhere that this was *asked for* because if
there are a large number of users on a system then it reduces the load on
the
official server.
I don't specifically or even vaguely recall any messages about distributing
the list load to sub-lists - and if it were to be done, it seems that it
should be an organized effort, involving at least people being notified
that it is happening.
[re - spam filters]
But then again I think the same of the official procmail list.
Yea, and that dog has been beaten to death - which is WHY several procmail
regulars filter out procmail-as-bcc (which has, up until this mirror thing,
been quite effective). AAMOF, I believed you to be one of those running
such a filter. To modify filters to allow posts from a specific
procmail-as-bcc which could instead be used as a relay just opens the
problem right back up for those who were otherwise guarded against it.
What would have happened if the mirror tripped a spam autoresponder? Would
it have forwarded that response to the main procmail list (as a BCC to
boot, and possibly without an X-Loop to guard against a repeat)? I am
reminded of instances where people had vacation messages being posted to
digests (thankfully, those people weren't subscribed non-digest), on this
very list.
---
Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies. I'll get my copy from the list.
Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering
Post Box 2395 / San Rafael, CA 94912-2395