[Mailman-Users] I'm getting a 95% mass bounce action

[David Spake]

Mark Sapiro wrote:

> David Spake wrote:
> 
>>I've got a problem with Mailman, and I'm unsure as to how to correct it. 
>> My host provider runs MailMan 2.1.5.  I like it, but the problem I'm 
>>having is that I keep getting periodic mass bouncings my list.  I get 
>>like a 95% "bounce action notification" every three or four weeks.
> 
  > And what's in them. Do they contain a copy of the Delivery Status
> Notification. What does it say?

Here is one of the notices (with the email address of the 'notified' 
person xx'd out):

--
This is a Mailman mailing list bounce action notice:
     List:       HH_Talk
     Member:     xx at xxxx
     Action:     Subscription disabled.
     Reason:     Excessive or fatal bounces.
The triggering bounce notice is attached below.
Questions? Contact the Mailman site administrator at
mailman at heartlandhumanists.org.
--

I've got the headers, and I don't see a Deliver Status Notification 
specific one.  There are a few MailMan headers, but not that specific one.

>>I've 
>>got the bounce processor turned off, and all the notifications come to 
>>me, so the users are unaware (as far as I can tell).
> 
> I'm not sure why you're seeing anything if bounce processing is turned
> off for the list. Normally, returned bounces are just discarded if
> bounce processing is off. Perhaps you're talking about notifications
> from when bounce processing was on.

Here's the appropriate information from Bounce processing Section:

======
bounce_processing : No
bounce_score_threshold: 5.0
bounce_info_stale_after: 0
bounce_you_are_disabled_warnings : 30
bounce_you_are_disabled_warnings_interval : 7
bounce_unrecognized_goes_to_list_owner : Yes
bounce_notify_owner_on_disable : Yes
bounce_notify_owner_on_removal : Yes
========
> 
<snip>
> Are you seeing the actual "bounce" notifications that are being
> returned? If so, they will tell you why the mail is bouncing. Without
> that information, people can only guess.

> If you are getting (have gotten) notifications to the list owner from
> Mailman, the triggering bounce message should be attached to the
> notification.

I get at the bottom of the bounce notification a copy of the email that 
caused the member to be bounced.  Here are a few of the headers:

X-Originating-Email: [g_xxx at msn.com]
FROM: [g_xxx at msn.com]
X-Return-Path: [g_xxx at msn.com]
To:  "HH talk" <hh_talk at heartlandhumanists.org>

This is the URL:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167235,00.html

That's it.  No other message, or text.  Just the URL.

> You could also try adjusting the bounce processing settings. If for
> example, you set bounce_score_threshold to 5.0 and
> bounce_info_stale_after to 4, then the only people who get disabled
> will be those who have five or more bounces with no more than 4 days
> between them. It sounds like your "spurious" bounces don't happen that
> often, but if you really have a bad address, this should get that as
> long as you normally get posts every day or two.

I'll try that.  I've just moved bounce_info_stale_after to 4, and I'll 
keep the threshold at 5.0

Thanks for helping me to improve the information, and the config tips.

Dave