[Mailman-Users] What Causes Random Unsubscribe Notices

[Mark Sapiro]

David Andrews wrote:

>I run mailman with about 175 lists, and 6000 users, many of whom 
>belong to multiple lists.  I have personalized e-mail set to yes, and 
>the following in the footer which produces a personal options link 
>for the user in each message:
>
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>%(real_name)s:
>%(user_optionsurl)s
>
>Several times a week I get mail from a user saying they got an 
>unsubscribe confirmation message and hadn't done anything to trigger 
>it.  I believe them because I have gotten some too.  This behavior 
>seems to have started when I started adding personalized footers.  Is 
>it somehow caused by the long string of personalized links left in 
>messages when people reply and don't trim off bottom.  Some of these 
>message chains can get pretty long.


It is almost certainly this.


>Or, is there something else that causes the generation of seemingly 
>random unsubscribe confirmation messages?


Or maybe the member forwarding an "interesting" list post to someone
else who thinks the forward came from a list and wants to unsubscribe.

In any case, it is caused by a third party receiving a message with the
member's unsubscribe link and following the link. Members can avoid
this by always removing the footer from any list post they reply to or
forward, or if they can't be bothered to do that, they can just ignore
the unsubscribe confirmations they will inevitably receive.

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