Re: What is with this message?

[Paul Nicholson <paul@eisusa.com>]

At 8:52 -0800 2/16/99, Debra Snell wrote:
>I continue to get this message privately, always with a subject title that
>I have responded to on the Quattro list. Any clues?
>Debra
>
>
>>Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 23:58:10 -0700
>>From: "Greg Smedsrud" <GSMED@novell.com>
>>Sender: Postmaster@novell.com
>>Reply-To: GSMED@novell.com
>>To: <snell@netshel.net>
>>Subject: Re: 99 A6: Missing Rear seat heaters?
>>Status:
>>
>>I am not in the office from 2-16 through 2-19.  Please contact Dee Brown
>>at 801-222-7738 for further assistance.
>>
>>Thank you,
>>
>>greg
>>

It's an auto-responder, the curse of mail-lists. Some people think that
they are so important that the rest of us need to know when they are out of
the office. If you're on a list, don't use them - it's very bad netiquette.

The worst I've seen in on digests format lists where people respond with a
"I'm not here message" and then spit back the whole digest. This
immediately causes another digest to sent to all subscribers as the size is
so big, which is then dutifully returned by the auto responder with the
echoed digest. Yes, it's a server choking positive feedback loop, and list
managers try to put in code to prevent it.

Paul