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[PSUBS-MAILIST] email delivery issues - use to be test
Warning...soapbox ahead. If you have no interest
in email delivery issues, delete now.
Excellent observation and very true. I have logs
from spam filters issuing warnings and rejecting email from legitimate sources
such as PSUBS.ORG. Too many ISP's today are overly zealous regarding
spam. I've seen messages returned because of "remove me" instructions in
the mail message. This is laughable on it's face since the Federal
CAN-SPAM act of 2003 requires that removal instructions be attached to mailing
lists such as PSUBS.ORG. So go figure; some people don't get email from
PSUBS.ORG because we comply with federal law.
Next,
those obsessed with a moral conviction to solve the spam problem themselves (and
tired of waiting for congress to actually control unsolicited mail) came up with
the brilliant idea of "blacklists". The equivalent of using your shotgun
to kill mosquitoes in the backyard. If your ISP uses a blacklist to
control spam, they are lazy...and you can tell them I told you
so.
The
third and final problem, but by far the least justifiable, is the US Congress
who don't have the guts to put real anti-spam laws into effect within this
country. The 2003 CAN-Spam Act is a joke, which is why Anti-Spam software
is more popular today than it was in 2003 when the law was created. How
many unsolicited emails do you get every day that don't have the required
compliance text attached to it?
The
problem that people like Shawn have is that 99% of spam filtering works on
receipt of email to their mailbox, not on delivery of email to someplace
else. So it is very probable that Shawn can send email to PSUBS.ORG, but
not get email in return. This really confuses people because they figure
if they can send mail to a particular site, they should be able to receive mail
as well. Hence, we receive the occasional email "Let me know if you get
this message. I haven't heard from PSUBS in weeks". This is
particularly the case for ISP's that use blacklists. Blacklist filtering
is done at the system level and users may not be aware that this filtering is
occurring.
The
PSUBS.ORG mailing list is up and running 99.9% of the time (ok, maybe
99%). If we drop a hard-drive and have to rebuild the system, it may be
down for a day or two at most. If we do some reconfiguration, the
list may be down for an hour or two. But in general over the past 10
years, the software has been very stable. So the problem is not generally
due to the server or software (I know I just jinxed myself and a major problem
will occur within the next week. everyone please knock on wood
NOW).
Here are a few other reasons why you may not get
mail from the mailing list.
1)
Nobody is writing anything. The list does go quiet from time to
time.
2) You
were removed for being a pest. Extremely rare. In 10 years, I think
we've deliberately blocked two people. If you haven't been in a heated
debate recently, received a dozen emails from other people asking you to stop,
or received an email from Ray or Jon asking you to stop (and you told us to go
screw); then this does not apply to you.
3) You
may have been removed from the list because a message couldn't be delivered to
you. This can happen if you have limited email space and your disk
allotment is full, or your server was down when email from PSUBS.ORG was being
delivered to you, or because your ISP uses a blacklist that has erroneously
listed us as sending spam, or any number of other reasons. Basically, if
for any reason our server cannot deliver email to your server, we get an error
message in return. I run an automated software suite that goes through
the undeliverable email and removes those email addresses from the mailing
list. Why? Because everytime anyone else sends a message to the
list, an attempt is made to deliver to you and we get an error message in
return. With about 200 people on the mailing list, this can result in a
lot of wasted bandwidth due to a problem with your server. So we delete
you from the list, and when the problem is resolved on your end, you can simply
re-register to the list. I don't like this approach, but I really don't
have an alternative. I can't notify you because I can't reach your server,
and I can't absorb the potential amount of traffic that results between the two
servers trying to connect.
4)
Spam filtering on your end is rejecting email from us. If the spam
software is set correctly, at worst the email should be showing up in a special
folder put aside for you where you can visually confirm whether the email is
spam or not, and adjust your spam rules accordingly. If you are not
running spam-filtering, ask your ISP if they are and if so, ask if they are
blocking PSUBS.ORG or it's associate IP address. They can use "nslookup"
to find the IP address and then check to see if they are filtering it.
This server NEVER sends spam. All our mailing lists are legitimate and
comply with the Federal CAN-SPAM act of 2003. It is a requirement, not an
option. This is why you see the compliance text at the end of every
message. Therefore, there is no reason for any ISP anywhere in the USA to
be filtering email from this server. If they are, you'll need to resolve
the issue with them since complying with federal law is all we can do to prove
our email distribution is legitimate.
Hope
this helps explain the situation a little bit.
Jon
Seems like spam filters often end up being the
problem - I check my Spam folder every week or
so.
Paul