Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:2362 comp.mail.misc:1403
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!utastro!werner
From: werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: Another example why not to re-route
Summary: a plea to all, and especially site-admins, to indicate an alternate
	 address in your map-entry - and your routine .signature
Message-ID: <3410@utastro.UUCP>
Date: 27 Nov 88 08:11:04 GMT
References: <140@minya.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 38

Subject: Why everyone, and especially Postmasters, should have 2 addresses.
Summary:  was Re: Another example why not to re-route

> For several days, my main newsfeed has been disabled, and due to rerouting
> by other machines, I have been unable to send messages along paths that
> should have worked.  I consider this an object lesson in why rerouting
> is not a good idea in general.

picking up the phone and calling might well be the "obvious" solution ...

...still, John's story of not being able to raise a Postmaster of a site
with mail-problems reminds me to, once again, ask that every author of
a map-entry include, at least, one alternate and reasonably independent
email-address on some other machine, if at all possible (and to check
the alternate mailbox(es) for mail !!!)

In the research community it is quite common to exchange guest-accounts
with "neighboring" site-admins;  and while at commercial sites this might
not be quite that easy to arrange, it should be easy enough to
make an agreement with the admin of a net-neighbor to be named as
alternate recipient in the map-entry of your site, and to relay any
messages by phone or print-out - if all else fails ....
An account on a Public Access or Commercial site, even if long-distance,
may well be THE easiest/simplest solution for most ...

It's too bad that even those of us with several mail-addresses to offer
mostly fail to indicate this in the  .signature-file ...


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(UUCP)	..!utastro!werner   or  ..!uunet!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!werner
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--------------------> PREFERED-RETURN-ADDRESS-FOLLOWS <---------------------
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(UUCP)	..!utastro!werner   or  ..!uunet!rascal.ics.utexas.edu!werner