We usually will drop accounts right away if messages to them bounce back as
"User Unknown", which was what happened in your case. I can send you a
bounced message if you're interested.
If we get a "Host Unknown", we assume (to start) that a server is down. If
the "Host Unknown" continues for days, then we'll drop the account, but we
would not normally do it just after a few hours.
But if it is "User Unknown", then we have to assume that you're not
around. We don't have any other way to verify - we obviously can't email
you to ask (since your email is "unknown"). Things like "User Unknown",
"No such account", and so forth, we have no way of telling if they're
temporary or permanent. They sound permanent, so we take them off.
If this happens to you, take no offense - just sign back up when your email
is fixed.
In all the years of running this list, since 1996 I think, I believe I've
only actually removed two people from the list for behavior. If you have
email problems that doesn't make us mad - we just don't know what's going
on, and as far as we can tell, your email account is gone. If it's not,
then straighten out your server and sign back up.
Just so everyone knows, I usually get a couple of hundred bounced emails a
day, and there's usually anywhere between 3 and 10 accounts at any given
time that have problems. For every email posted to the list I get a
bounced message from each and every one of these accounts, so magnify your
Lingo-L traffic by 5 or 10, and that's the amount of bounced messages I see.
The "Unknown User" ones I weed out right away. The ones that appear to be
problems with the server I will let ride for a few days, but if by the end
of the week I'm still getting notification that the server can't be found,
then I will drop those.
The only other thing is that we get a lot of "Mailbox full - quota
exceeded" messages. I understand these can happen, because of the traffic,
so I will let these ride for a few days as well. But if a few days go by,
particularly a few business days (I give more time during weekends and
holidays), eventually I have to take those people off too, otherwise I
would have 40 or 50 or more people at any given time with reception
problems. Multiple the traffic by 40 or 50 and you can see why we take
pains to manage the list.
However, we don't take offense and it's not like we don't like you. We're
just trying to manage the traffic. If your problem is resolved, just get
back on. As I said, in all the years and with all the users, we've only
twice took people off for non-technical reasons, and they know who they
are. Everyone else, it's just part of the list management, but don't be
offended.
Thanks
- Tab
[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to
http://www.penworks.com/LUJ/lingo-l.cgi To post messages to the list,
email [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Lingo-L is for learning and helping with programming Lingo. Thanks!]
