[thelist] obsolete e-mail query

[Seb]

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:56:17 +0100, Scott Harman <scott at enteractiontv.com> 
wrote:

> Hey all,
> This is more of a list-management query...
>
> I've inheirited an ancient domain (used to work there years ago) and
> it's not really been active for about the last 4 years.
>
> We're still getting e-mail subscriptions from old users, and I'm trying
> to work out exactly how many 5.1.1 codes (invalid e-mail address) the
> average list will accept before it purges the obsolete account?

This really depends on how the mailing list management software deals with 
bounces.

As an example. in Mailman, you can configure bounce processing on a per- 
list basis through the admin interface for each list. Mailman deals with 
soft and hard bounces (mail temporarily undeliverable, such as mailbox 
full, and mail permanently undeliverable, such as user uknown)  by 
assigning different scores to each type. After certain score thresholds, 
users will either be set to "no mail" or have their accounts invalidated 
and removed. Of course, all of this is reported to the list administrator 
so that manual intervation can occur at any point.

By default, Mailman sets nomail at a limit of 5 points, and removes 
accounts after 3 reminders have been sent to the user. Soft bounces are 
worth a half point and hard bounces are a whole point.

For reference, this is at:

http://your.url/mailman/admin/yourlist/bounce on any mailman server.

- seb

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