I've disabled the subscription that caused the mail loop this morning,
so it should be safe to post messages to the list again.
With the summer season upon us, here's a reminder of some items you
should check before using a "vacation" or "out of office" program.
1) Make sure it only sends _one_ "on vacation" note back to
any given address.
2) Make sure it does _not_ send replies to messages that are marked
with a "Precedence" of "list", "junk", or "bulk".
3) Make sure it only sends replies to messages that actually have
your e-mail address in the To: or CC: lines.
4) The program should _not_ use the incoming message's subject line
when sending a reply message.
(A large number of automated "confirm action with user" systems
send a message with a confirmation code in the message subject
line. If your vacation message doesn't change the subject line
when it generates its reply message, that reply will end up being
treated as a "confirmation" from you -- even though you aren't
even in your office.)
If you can't be sure that your vacation program follows those rules, you
should not use it, as it's likely to cause you problems (not to mention
other people subscribed to mailing lists with you, your mail system
administrator, etc....).
(If you still decide to go ahead and use the program, be sure to
unsubscribe from any mailing lists you are subscribe to beforehand.)
On a related note: whenever you notice a mail loop on a mailing list you
are subscribed to, do not send any new messages to the list (and that
includes "hey, there is a mail loop!"-type messages). Each additional
message will start a new cycle of looping, making the situation that
much worse (and it's already obvious to everyone on the list that there
is a loop :) ).
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming....
Nathan Stratton Treadway
sqr-users list manager
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan Stratton Treadway - nathanst@ontko.com - Mid-Atlantic region
Ray Ontko & Co. - Software consulting services - http://www.ontko.com/
GPG Key: http://www.ontko.com/~nathanst/gpg_key.txt ID: 1023D/ECFB6239
Key fingerprint = 6AD8 485E 20B9 5C71 231C 0C32 15F3 ADCD ECFB 6239
Attachment:
pgp00002.pgp
Description: PGP signature
_______________________________________________ sqr-users mailing list sqr-users@sqrug.org http://www.sqrug.org/mailman/listinfo/sqr-users