[Mailman-Users] listname-bounces@

[Grant Taylor]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> It's one of the "VERP" settings.  While "true" VERP is done by the 
> MTA, not by agents like Mailman, the basic idea is the same: to 
> "personalize" various fields in the message so that the original that 
> elicited a reply (including a bounce) can be identified.

Um...  Please explain what you mean by "... true VERP is done by the MTA 
...".  Are you thinking of SRS?  I'm not aware of any thing else at the 
MTA level that will alter the SMTP Envelope sender (MAIL FROM:).  As far 
as RFC 822 headers, that is almost completely up to the MSA.  About the 
only thing that the MTA does is insert (or append) a header if it does 
not already exist.

> IIRC there are two.  One which enables VERP for various 
> administrative messages which allows occasional checking for bounces, 
> the other enables it for all messages.  I believe this is possible on 
> a per-list basis.  You want the latter.

I think you are thinking of the Non-digest delivery option "Personalize" 
and its possible values:  "No", "Yes", and "Full Personalization".  Yes 
these are per-list settings.

> The downside is performance, which is why VERP off is the default. 
> Each message has to be composed individually, which increases the 
> processor load a bit.  This is probably negligible.  More important, 
> each message has to be sent individually, which can dramatically slow 
> down processing if you have any large groups of members served by a 
> single receiving MTA.  (It is possible to specify multiple recipients 
> for a single message; the receiving MTA will fetch it from the 
> network once, then distribute copies.  Sort of like you fax a handout 
> to the meeting organizer, and he makes Xeroxes for all the attendees. 
> Much more efficient than faxing one to each attendee!)

Correct.  However, (IMHO) it does help make your message appear to be 
less spammy in nature.  If you receive two questionable messages, one 
with your email address listed in the To: / CC: header(s) and one with 
out it, you are far more likely to consider the one that does not list 
your email address as spam than the one that does have your email 
address.  Similarly with the use of the name in the email address with 
Full Personalization.



Grant. . . .