[Mailman-Developers] Re: Bounce removal parameters default values

[Greg Stark]

Harald Meland <harald.meland at usit.uio.no> writes:

> [Greg Stark]
> 
> > Before removing a subscriber mailman should send a message with
> > known content testing the address. Only if such a message bounces
> > should a user be dropped.
> 
> Uhm... what parts of such a known content message do you think can
> safely be assumed to still be discernible when Mailman receives the
> bounce message?

You've misunderstood me. I'm not suggesting it should expect the bounce
message to have known content.

What I'm suggesting is that Mailman should *send* a message with known content
itself, and only if that message bounces should it decide the address is
invalid.

This is what ezmlm does. As much as I dislike ezmlm and qmail for other
reasons and like Mailman for other reasons, this is one thing it gets right
and Mailman gets wrong.

Deciding an address is invalid on the basis of messages posted to the list is
bogus. Mailman can't know whether the message posted to the list bounced
because the address was invalid, or merely because the content of that
particular message triggered a content-based filter.

-- 
greg