Re: Wrong address unsubscribed

On 2003.01.06 11:23 Charlie Summers wrote:
>    It's unlikely he's "bouncing" mail through his SMTP server; I
> could, for
> example, add your address to sendmail's access file as a REJECT, but
> your
> list messages would still get through, since when the list distributes
> a
> message _it_ is the envelope sender, not you. Looks more like A is
> doing
> something with procmail, or worse some moronic Windoze application
> that
> trusts the From: header field.

That makes sense.  Clearly, though, A is somehow returning an error 
return to the MTA.  Mr. A is an AOL subscriber.  The bounce message 
from the AOL mailer daemon to the list-request address (addresses 
munged) says:

> From [email protected]  Fri Jan  3 07:58:09 2003
  Return-Path: <[email protected]>
  Received: from omr-d03.mx.aol.com (omr-d03.mx.aol.com [205.188.159.1])
  	by mymachine.mydomain.net (8.11.6/8.11.2) with ESMTP id 
h03Dw4602881
  	for <[email protected]>; Fri, 3 Jan 2003 07:58:04 
-0600
  Received: from  air-xi03.mail.aol.com (air-xi03.mail.aol.com 
[172.20.116.3]) by omr-d03.mx.aol.com (v86_r1.15) with ESMTP id 
RELAYIN10-0103085745; Fri, 03 Jan 2003 08:57:45 -0500
  from: Mail Delivery Subsystem <[email protected]>
  Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 08:55:58 EST
  To: <[email protected]>
  Subject: Mail Delivery Problem
  Mailer: AIRmail [v90.10]
  Message-ID: <[email protected]>
    Your mail to the following recipients could not be delivered 
because they are not accepting mail from [email protected]:
  	B
  
I don't have an informed opinion on whether this is a malformed 
bounce.  (Do you?)  In any case, B was eventually told:

   Your mail address B has been removed
   from the [email protected] mailinglist.
   It generated an excessive amount of bounced mails.

> Your specific problem doesn't seem to call for a technical
> solution, but
> rather a social one. My solution would be, as listmaster, to reinstate
> B and
> immediately unsubscribe A until A bought a clue on how to tell the
> difference
> between Return-Path: and From:.

The suggestion at a social solution is well taken, and I have indeed 
replaced A with B.

Still, I'm guessing that as an AOL subscriber, A lacks the kind of 
tools that would make it possible to bounce more politely.  Sooner or 
later this problem will be back, with a different cast of characters, 
and it would be nice to solve it technically. 
-- 
Don Doumakes