[Mailman-Users] Detecting Autoresponders

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Adam McGreggor writes:

 > > As others have said, if an autoresponder is responding repeatedly to  
 > > the same address in the course of a few days it is certainly behaving  
 > > badly.  Lotus Notes and Exchange autoresponders should not be allowed  
 > > near the Internet.
 > 
 > I'd rewrite that last part to:
 >  "Lotus Notes and poorly-setup Microsoft Exchange installations should
 >   not be allowed near the Internet."

I'm not sure that's acceptable.  People might be tempted to think that
MCSE + CCNA qualify one to do better than "poorly set up" a mail
server. :-/

 > "approach" is. (I don't always see those messages: through filtering,
 > I attempt to ditch 'out of office' type messages.)

My butt has been saved (from Usenet-style flaming, not corporate-style
firing) on a number of occasions by the practice of making my personal
filter a subset of the rules used on my lists.  I realize for various
reasons that's not always feasible, but it's a good rule of thumb to
start with.