[Mailman-Users] mail loops: list-request and vacation messages

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 25 Jun 2001 23:21:54 -0400 
bob  <Puff at NLE" <bob at nleaudio.com>> wrote:

>> If you can find something the mailbot did that (a) would allow
>> mailman to recognize it as such, and (b) wouldn't cause false
>> positives by blocking legitimate messages, let us know. We'll
>> look at improving mailman to trap it.

> Relatively easy.  Set a limit on how many messages a user can post
> in say a 10 minute period.  Make it user editable.  If you get >8,
> you've got a loop!

I will not uncommonly 20 - 30 messages to a list within 10 minutes
(I often write several messages in parallel and then hit send on
them all more or less at once).  For those on dialup accounts who
write their email while offline and then deliver next time they
dialin, I've regularly seen 50+ valid messages from a single user
within a 30 second period.

> You could make the period user-adjustable also, for precisely
> narrowing in... So you might let 8 messages go out, but better 8
> than 1000...

You're betting against the law of averages here.  At the very best,
that's a sucker bet.  Don't do it.

-- 
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
The pressure to survive and rhetoric may make strange bedfellows