[Mailman-Users] help request: new 1300 member list results inmostly bounces

[Mark Sapiro]

Nathan wrote:
>
>Any advice as to why this is happening? I'm assuming the problem is NOT 
>with mailman itself, but possibly with her webhost (maybe flagged as a 
>spammer by other hosts?).


That's one possibility.


>For what it's worth, one other address to 
>which the email did get through was my mac.com address. I noticed in my 
>mac.com web interface that the message showed that it had an 
>attachment, but there was no evidence of that attachment once I clicked 
>through to read the mail. She's sending from AOL, and it does appear 
>that html was included, so maybe the attached file is the html 
>document?


Or maybe it's the list footer. See
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.039.htp>.


>I am not her usual web person, so don't have a lot of other info, or a 
>way to take it up directly with the host, however I'm sure I could 
>speak with him and get whatever info is necessary, but at the moment, I 
>don't even know what to ask. Since mailman handles the bounces 
>automatically, I don't even know how to go about figuring out what 
>caused them.


One possibility is the host has a limit on how many recipients can be
addressed in one email or sent to within some time frame.

In a hosted situation, it's difficult to deal with bounce info. If
bounce_notify_owner_on_disable is on, the owner will get a copy of any
disabling bounce, but bounces that only increment the score are not
saved or reported. You can set bounce_score_threshold to 1.0 so the
member is disabled and the owner notified on the first bounce, but
then you have the problem of re-enabling everyone which is tedious via
the web. Since you are just setting this up, you could set the
threshold low, send a message, see the bounces and then mass remove
everyone and mass subscribe them back.


>Also, is there a way to send out a test message to only a few members 
>of the group? If this were the case, I could try to troubleshoot by 
>sending a message from my account rather than hers, using plain text, 
>etc.


Set up a separate test list with only those few addresses. There's no
convenient way to disable delivery for all but a few members and then
re-enable it. As above, you could mass remove all but a few and then
mass subscribe them when you're done.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan