On Sun, Jul 24, 2005 17:31:58 PM +0000, Jonathon Blake
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: 
> Mrco wrote:
> 
> > No, it's something else, which is complementary to what you are already 
> > doing:
> 
> So it took 50 or so messages to get to this point:
> 
> > 1) Unsubscribed user posts to list
> > 2) procmail recognizes that message as coming from unsubscribed
> >    user, and memorizes subject and original unsubscribed sender 
> 
> And you are seriously proposing that one person configure their
> email to do this?

Yes. I am seriously proposing to look, or at least put a request on
the web pages, for somebody who can do it.
Of course it would never catch *all* the possible wrong ways human can
find to interact with a mailing list. So what? It would still take
care of the cases discussed so far, greatly reducing the noise and the
load on the maintainers.

Now, with respect to your cases:

> i) Send a question about something in response to another question,
>    without changing the subject line;
> ii) Send a question about something with _no_ subject line;
> iii) Send an answer to a question with no subject line;
> iv) Reply to message, without including the message-id of the original
> message that they are replying to;
> v) Send the question a second time, as a reply to their first question;
> vi) Reply to a message with a _different_ subject line;
> 

I suggested something based on subject and sender, so it would work in
i), iv), v) and vi). 

I have also already answered about how the subject-less messages
should be treated. It's much easier: just discard all of them,
possibly with a polite (still automatic) request to repost with a
subject. At some point you have to be realistic about how meaningful
some effort is and draw the line.

>From http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html:

"Anyone can post to our most popular lists, but if you are not already
subscribed, your message will be moderated. In this way, we limit the
amount of spam entering the message lists".

In other words, there are humans who check all messages from
unsubscribed addresses to block spam? But a lot of spam comes without
subject, just like a lot of real questions from unsubscribed users.

So, what do the moderators do? Waste their time opening all
subject-less messages? Is this a service which produces more than it
costs?

So, summing up, probably procmail *could* work even with (some)
subject-less messages, but they shouldn't exist in the first place so
it doesn't matter. And I had already explained that. There is nothing
wrong, unpolite or hurting people in an automated reply saying "please
add a detailed subject of your problem so we can process your request
faster and more effectively".

Ciao,
        Marco
 
-- 
Marco Fioretti                    mfioretti, at the server mclink.it
Fedora Core 3 for low memory      http://www.rule-project.org/

"If automobiles had followed the same development cycle as the
computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per
gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."
                                                      --Robert Cringley

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