At 3:59 AM -0400 6/29/96, Cyndi Norman wrote:
>Actually, I think the bounce rate is about the same per user (higher for
>full mailboxes, but almost absent for system errors or even connection
>errors; oh and lots higher on unknown users). But I'd say a disporportate
>number of problem *users* come from AOL (due to the ease of getting an
>account, the ease of extra account names, and the freebie sign-ons).
This is a problem that we're aware of, but the problem is more
clueless newbies, and by virtue of our size, we have more of them
than anyone else. I can't see any obvious solutions to this problem
that wouldn't also result in putting ourselves out of business. But
we're always willing to listen to suggestions that people may have.
>This is a *huge* problem. I maintain my list by hand (don't ask!) and am
>behind on new subs right now (long story(ies)!) and find that about 20-40%
>of sub requests from aol result in unknown user bounces at the point they
>get on to the list. I'm guessing most of those are from people using the
>free 10 (or 15) hr accounts. these are usually internet newbies who have
>no clue what a mailing list is. They do a search for a keyword on yahoo,
>find my webpage, and think it'd be fun to subscribe to this list, and then
>they send me mail and ask to get on the list. I wish those freebie
>accounts had more restrictions...
Yup, clueless newbies. But if we kept them from getting on the
Internet until they had been successfully indoctrinated, then they
wouldn't want to stay on the service (and we'd go out of business),
because that process would take too long. People typically want
instant gratification, which is part of what makes the free disk
distribution successful.
It's this instant gratification that actually makes the AOL
gatewaying of mailing lists to Usenet newsgroups so successful --
people don't have to wait for their subscription to be processed
before they can start reading and posting messages, and they can also
get instant access to a certain amount of previous messages, so that
they have some context for understanding what the list is about, what
proper behaviour is, etc.... Obviously, this is something we think
is positive, and will expand in the future.
But, for those lists that aren't gatewayed to Usenet news (either
locally at AOL or nationwide), the only thing I know of that can help
is for the people running the lists to use full featured list
management software that can take care of most of the details of
subscribing users, dealing with bounces, etc....
--
Brad Knowles, MIME/PGP: brad@his.com
comp.mail.sendmail FAQ Maintainer <http://www.his.com/~brad/>
finger brad@his.com for my PGP Public Keys and Geek Code
The comp.mail.sendmail FAQ is at <http://www.his.com/~brad/sendmail/>
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