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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!ptsfa!l5!gnu
From: gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.mail
Subject: Re: Standardising the "postmaster" concept
Message-ID: <82@l5.uucp>
Date: Sun, 8-Sep-85 21:08:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: l5.82
Posted: Sun Sep  8 21:08:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Sep-85 03:30:35 EDT
References: <426@mungunni.OZ>
Organization: Ell-Five [Consultants], San Francisco
Lines: 23
Summary: These facilities mostly exist

In article <426@mungunni.OZ>, isaac@mungunni.OZ (Isaac Balbin) writes:
> I wonder if there is sufficient support for organising a standard user
> like the existing "postmaster" on some Unix Systems, which will enable people 
> to find out the login id of others.
For VM/370 systems [BITNET], the equivalent of "root" is "operator".  You
could try mailing to there.
 
If each site that connects a new site would ensure that "postmaster" and
"usenet" aliases exist on the new site, this would help.  (One is for 
trouble with mail, the other for trouble with netnews.)

It isn't in general possible to answer questions like "how to I send mail
to Joe Blow at Harvard" without calling him up or sending him a postcard,
or finding someone already in electronic touch with him.

>                                                 Can ... a "notification"
> option exist so that one realises that the only reason no reply has been 
> received is that the receipient is away or uninterested or trying to avoid
> answering you! 
This exists for sites running sendmail or other Arpa-compatible mailers.
Add a header line "Return-receipt-to: XXX" where XXX is your address,
*relative to the receiving site*.  In other words, it's the address your
friend would have to send to, to get the message to you.