----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 6:50 PM
Subject: [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