Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!rpp386!puzzle!bei
From: bei@puzzle.UUCP (Bob Izenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Jail postmasters
Summary: did it arrive with a complete return path?
Keywords: postmaster mail sendmail excuses
Message-ID: <1823@puzzle.UUCP>
Date: 27 Nov 89 06:55:36 GMT
References: <496@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <1989Nov26.045020.9447@smsc.sony.com>
Reply-To: attctc!puzzle!bei (Bob Izenberg)
Followup-To: comp.mail.misc
Distribution: usa
Organization: Somewhere in Austin, TX
Lines: 28

In article <1989Nov26.045020.9447@smsc.sony.com> dce@icky.Sony.COM (David Elliott) writes:
[ in response to Peter J. Dotzauer's request for incarceration of impolite
  postmaster aliases ]

>Whatever you do, make sure that they know you sent them mail as
>postmaster and got no response.  If they know postmaster messages
>contain meaningful messages, they may be less likely to ignore them.

I make a point of it to help out anyone who sends mail about something that
bounced or someone they're trying to contact.  But... not too long ago, I came
in on Monday morning to see that sendmail on our NFS server had lost track of
our "machine with modems."  My mailbox was full of bounced messages, and
most of the machines were nodes on people's desks that weren't known to
the nameserver we use.  I could have researched each bounced message, found
the users who wrote them, mailed them the original text plus error to be
resent, and count on it's being able to be delivered.  The mentors I asked
about this agreed that it wasn't worth chasing the authors down, so the
bounce messages got deleted.
It's perhaps easier on Internet or amongst uucp sites.  >Somebody< is bound
to have a smart host nearby that knows about an element of the path.  I do
wonder, though, whether most people would give up if the message to the
author of a bounced letter itself bounces?
-- Bob
-- 
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                     Bob Izenberg [ ] Ralph Kirkley Associates
         attctc!puzzle!bei  (or)   cs.utexas.edu!ibmchs!auschs!evil-ed!bei
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