Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!milton!max!wcn
From: wcn@max.u.washington.edu (W C Newell Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Jail postmasters
Message-ID: <11424@max.u.washington.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 89 01:19:17 GMT
References: <496@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <1267@borabora.omni.com>
Distribution: usa,world
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle WA
Lines: 49

In article <1267@borabora.omni.com>, bob@omni.com (Bob Weissman) writes:
> In article <496@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu>, pjd@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Peter J. Dotzauer) writes:
>> I do not believe in the death penalty, but I propose stiff sentences
>> for postmasters who repeatedly ignore inquiries.
>
> My policy as a point of contact for electronic inquiries has always
> been to refer the inquiry to the person who is the subject of the
> inquiry.
 
This is my policy too, unless the person's e-mail address is published in the
staff directory.  Many of our users choose to keep their e-mail addresses
confidential.  Many others are isolated on a departmental system, or have no
account at all, and we'd have to contact the person by voice to find out.  It
is not practical for our staff to assume this responsibility, given a campus
pop. of 50,000.
 
We do try to reply to all inquiries, and we encourage users to contact their 
friends and colleagues by voice or surface mail to facilitate exchange of 
e-mail addresses.  Some replies may bounce.  Sometimes a query can get lost in 
the shuffle.  I get an average of 100 mail messages/day, not counting what is 
sent to postmaster, which at our site is handled by several people.  Of course, 
I can't speak for other sites.  An admin of a departmental system may not look 
at postmaster or root for weeks at a time.
 
"Terrorism", as defined by other articles in this thread, is >NOT< the way to 
go, unless you really want to be ignored.  If the admin of a departmental 
system does not respond, it is OK to try a higher-level domain. 
  
> If you don't like this arrangement, pick up the telephone and call Joe.
 
Absolutely.  If there are extenuating circumstances, give us the details and
we'll see what we can do.  Usually this means sending you the address of a
contact in the department, if we know of one.
 
Other points:  I give priority attention to postmasters and consultants from
other sites.  This is not done to be cliquish, but rather to share expertise, 
since the topology changes daily and we're all struggling to keep up.  Thus it 
pays to befriend your local mail wizard.  I also investigate problems with
bouncing mail, so if you try an address at this site that should work but
doesn't, it helps a lot to send me a copy of the message header.  Last but not
least, some of the articles in this group are UNIX-specific, and it is 
important to recognize that a lot of e-mail addresses are on non-UNIX systems.
Some suggestions won't work with non-UNIX mailers.  In fact, an increasing
number of non-UNIX sysadmins read this newsgroup.
 
Bill Newell
Systems Analyst, Applications Consulting Group
University of Washington
WCN@MAX.U.WASHINGTON.EDU