More e-mail troubles

[J. Landman Gay]

Bob Warren wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> I would not normally dream of trying to deal with an administrative 
> problem on this List, but it seems that all communication with Technical 
> Support has been cut off. I have been unable to get a word out of them 
> for the last 10 days (and even then it was only one word).
> 
> I have tried sending copies of my e-mails to Mark Chia and to Kevin, 
> with no result.
> 
> My aim in sending details of my difficulty to the List is 2-fold:
> 
> 1) Presuming that there is some good technical reason for my 
> communication cutoff, perhaps someone in Technical Support will see it 
> and give me an answer.
> 
> 2) Regarding the possibility that my computer might have been attacked 
> by a Use-Revolution-List-specific virus or even a hacker, perhaps 
> someone can give me advice on what to do, especially if they have had a 
> similar experience. This is the most urgent part.
> 
> Since sending the e-mails below, I suddenly received all the outstanding 
> U-R Lists in one great dollop.
> 
> Hoping someone can clarify.

I just did a search of the support database and could not find any 
messages from you within the last two months, so it appears your emails 
aren't getting through (or my search skills are suspect.) The address is 
<support at runrev.com>. I assume that is where you sent your inquiries, 
but just in case, double-check. Tech support *always* responds, usually 
within 2 days, so if you haven't received a response after, say, four 
days (which would be a very long time) then you can be pretty sure your 
message never arrived. Don't send to Kevin or Mark -- your note will get 
lost in a huge sea of correspondence.

> However, something somewhere is sending copies of my e-mails to
 > other people (with apparently normal accounts) in other parts of
 > the world. I know this because I have received messages back telling
 > me that the person's mailbox is full, or that their anti-spam filter
 > doesn't recognise me as a "friend" and they need me to confirm that
 > I really did send them the message (which I didn't, of course).

What you are receiving from "strangers" is just a normal bounce that is 
routine for this type of mailing list. When you send a note to the list, 
the server copies it to everyone. Some people's mailboxes are full, or 
they have an auto-responder that sends back a boilerplate message. These 
bounces are not routed back to the main mailing list (which would cause 
an infinite loop of send-bounce-send-bounce,) but a copy *is* sent to 
the original poster (unfortunately, that's just how these lists work.)

That's why if you go on vacation you should turn off any auto-responders 
from your own mailbox or else temporarily suspend mailing lists, because 
everyone who happens to write to the list will receive your 
auto-response after every message they send. I have been deleting 
multiple auto-responders recently, as one particular list member forgot 
to turn off his list mail before he left town. Sometimes Heather will 
notice these and turn off that person's list delivery temporarily, but 
other times we just have to toss out those responses ourselves.

They are nothing to worry about and they mean nothing; they are a 
routine bounce from the list server. Just delete them. (Actually, what 
I've done is set up a mail filter that automatically routes these to my 
mail trash.)

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com