How admin bounces work (Re: [H-GEN] Admin bounce for Anthony Towns <aj at azure.humbug.org.au>)

[Jason Henry Parker]

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Rob Unsworth <rob at unsworth.net> writes:

> Why would you bounce mail that contain the letters u,n and s when I am
> subscribed as rob at unsworth.net.

The software (majordomo) looks at the message body and the Subject:
header.  If it sees anything matching a variety of regexes (words like
`h*lp', `*ns*bscribe' (actually this is, as I've mentioned, matched
just by the sequence of letters `u', `n', and then `s') and anything
else that looks like a majordomo command.

I don't know why it doesn't bounce stuff that has your name in it;
perhaps it's because it doesn't appear in the subject: line of posts,
and/or because it doesn't appear soon enough in the
message---majordomo doesn't scan the whole thing, preferring to look
at just the first 6 or 8 lines (I think).

Besides, I'm *not* responsible for which messages require bouncing and
which do not.  Non-member submissions and admin request bounces go to
the humbug-owner address (ie me) and when I see one that comes from an
address I know is on the list, I forward it.

If this was my list I wouldn't bother with the non-member submission
or the admin request bounce stuff; it catches far too many false
positives.  However I can see the utility for lists that are much
larger than this one.

jason
-- 
4.  A SIMIAN should respond to a TYPE or FASTER request with an
ACCEPT code, especially if there are deadlines.  The only other
allowed responses are REFUSE, ASLEEP, GONE, NORESPONSE, or DEAD.

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