I help manage a mailing list for ISPs, so it's a given that everyone who
*belongs* on this list is highly technical, although it is becoming
increasingly common that we get subscribers who are not highly technical
(although they do work at ISPs). A few days ago a vacation program started
replying to every message posted, sending the reply back *to the list* (not
to the message author). I posted to the list that I had set the
miscreant's subscription to nomail and would lart him when he returned from
his vacation.
Since then I've received 2 forwarded emails regarding another subscriber's
vacation autoresponder that is responding *to the author* for each post to
the list. Since these messages are not going *to the list*, should I, as
list owner, take any action (set their subscription to nomail, or ?)
against the subscriber?
I see a couple of issues:
1) The messages are not going to the list, but rather to the author. In
some situations, it IS appropriate to let a list poster know that you will
not be reading and replying to their post in a timely manner. But this is
a pretty large list (~1000 subscribers), so maybe I shouldn't give any
allowances for this, maybe I should insist that vacation programs not reply
to posts to this list.
2) I don't yet know if the vacation program is sending more than one such
message to each poster, e.g. if someone posts several times a day, are they
getting a response per post, or just a response for the first post. Should
my action be different if the vacation program sends multiple responses to
the same poster?
Weighing these 2 issues, my present gut feeling is that I should not take
any action if the vacation program is only sending *one* response to each
poster, but that I should set the miscreant to nomail if the vacation
program sends multiple responses when someone is posting multiple times.
Are there other factors I'm overlooking?
What I am seeking is not so much "the answer" as to make sure I've asked
all the right questions to help me come up with the answer for my list.
Thanks!
jc
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