On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, Brock Rozen wrote:
>Chael Hall wrote:
>> >BR> What about a vacation mode? like "set list vacation 5-5-97 address@host"
>>
>> No way... That's a nice idea if it weren't a headache and more confusing.
>> One thing that would be good is to send partial digests when the
>> subscriber changes from digest to instant. ListProcessor used to do
>> that... That was one of two features that I liked about it that Mj
>> doesn't do.
>
>What's partial digests?
A partial digest would be the messages that have collected so far for the
next digest. Since the subscriber is moving to instant mode, they will
miss these messages unless they wait to switch right after a digest is
sent (which may not be when it is received), 'GET' the digest from Mj, or
subscribe to the instant before unsubscribing from the digest. It's one
of those, "Wow, I really like your list processor; they really appreciate
their subscribers" type of features. This feature would be hard to
implement with the current Mj design (entirely separate lists requiring
separate sub/unsub requests.) It would be easy in the new system where
the list format is merely a parameter of the subscriber's record.
>Anyhow, I still think vacation mode is good -- on a basic level. All
>that would happen is that the person receives no mail until the date
>set. Then they're returned to their old method of sending.
Perhaps... I see it as a feature that could be put near the bottom of the
todo list for a while.
>> The other feature was really a cluster of features made possible by using
>> a database format (albeit a text file database.) It was auto
>> unsubscription for bouncing addresses, postponing mail (I saw that on your
>
>Auto-bounce remover sounds great -- but aren't there things that already
>do this? And sometimes it isn't easy to figure out which address it is
>that's bouncing.
Yes... I haven't tried anyone else's. I had written one, but it was lost
in what my subscribers have dubbed "the crash of '96." :-) There went a
perfectly good Thanksgiving weekend, but that's another story. This was
before list processors started making good use of message headers. Lots
of bounces would go back to the list or the list processor addresses.
What a headache without an auto-bounce handler. Even so, it got to
looping on a few occasions. It had no concept of the '--' indicator or
envelope sender.
>Or -- if the command is the right one but looks similiar, just tell them
>they've sent through a wrong command and probably meant "blah blah" and
>should resend THAT command.
>
>Makes life harder, but that just means they'll have to learn. Free
>lessons, I guess.
Yep... I can see it now:
suscribe x-flies
**** Hmmm... It would seem that you want to SUBSCRIBE to the list
**** 'x-files' but that's not what you said. Here in the Midwest we
**** pronounce the letter "B" so that would be SUBscribe. We're also
**** not interested in paranormal flies, so we suggest that you try
**** the list 'x-files' instead.
****
**** With warm regards (because the server room is overheating --
**** has the list admin hit you up for donations yet? He will...
**** You didn't hear it from me...),
****
**** Major Domo
Incidentally, the character "Major Domo" actually appeared in a story that
one of my list members wrote as a parody of some of the frequent list
contributors. He was one of the heads of Cerberus (the other two being
myself and the other list admin.)
Chael
--
Chael Hall, nowhere@chaos.taylored.com
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