Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!problem!compus!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!usaos!wsrcc.com!wolfgang
From: wolfgang@wsrcc.com (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: Inexact addresses
Message-ID: <1990Dec21.180554.24768@wsrcc.com>
Date: 21 Dec 90 18:05:54 GMT
References: <1990Dec19.202600.3018@engin.umich.edu> <8bPylJb0BwwOQcybBW@transarc.com>
Organization: Wolfgang S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Washington DC.
Lines: 14

>You do run a risk when you deliver to heuristic name matches.  When I
>was more involved with andrew.cmu.edu, we decided to bounce mail unless
>there was an exact match for surname or userid.  

Even this is often risky.  We used to chuckle everytime some fuzzy
matcher sent mail for a person called 'nancy' to our usenet site
called 'nancy'.  The mail usually got dumped on postmaster since it
didn't even have a local user name on it - the address stopped at the
machine name!

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang Rupprecht    wolfgang@wsrcc.com (or) uunet!wsrcc!wolfgang
Snail Mail Address:   Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524