At 06:11 PM 11/29/99 -0600, David W. Tamkin wrote:
>Nick Simicich wrote to the list, to Roger Fajman, and to me:
>
>| In any case, you might consider using the web to finesse the broken e-mail
>| system.
>
>Whom do you mean by "you," Nick? None of us here run the list hosts in
>question, so none of us here can change them. I do find it silly that
>ONElist, for example, gives a web URL in confirmation requests for
>subscriptions, preencoded with the confirmation cookie, as well as a reply
>address, but not in confirmation requests for removals. After all, if these
>people get their email on webmail services, they must have HTTP access. But
>the people who can do that are those who program the list host: not Roger,
>not me, not anyone here.
I presumed that some folks here might be running EzMLM systems. These
people could presumably fix it for themselves. I've been known to
misunderstand coversations before - wasn't part of the issue that EzMLM
with Qmail uses these addresses? I've been confused before....
But that (that people on this list can't help others solve the problem) is
not technically true. I could write a web form that would send mail to
addresses with '=' in the local part of the header, from the webmail
origins. By exchanging a token with the originating mailing address, I
might even be able to do it with a reasonable modicum of security, or at
least tracability. But that would probably be just as hard to explain as
the below:
>| Alternatively, consider providing an instructional page that explains how
>| the end user caught in this pickle can telnet to port 25 of the system that
>| MX's for the target and manually put in the e-mail to this weird address
>| from themselves. :-)
>
>Interesting idea but impossible to explain to most people in that particular
>briny cucumber. Clicking on a URL sent to them in email is just about their
>speed. Asking them to send an answer to email anywhere besides the supplied
>reply address is way above their heads.
Note the smily.
>BigMailBox's web site gave a phone number for sales; I called there and they
>transfered me to Jason in tech support, who transfered me to Chris in pro-
>gramming, to whom I explained that forbidding equal signs causes a problem;
>Chris said he'd refer it to his superiors.
>
>The people there were very nice and listened politely, but who knows whether
>they'll just forget that I called now that we've hung up? If they do make
>any changes, they'll show up on gohip.com right away, so I'll check what hap-
>pens on gohip.com from time to time. BTW, Chris did acknowledge that their
>mailer-daemon couldn't write to an address with an equal sign either, so if
>a BMB system closes or renames an account, or if a mail quota fills up, and
>the account is on a mailing list running under ezmlm or a derivative, the BMB
>system cannot return an NDN.
Hopefully you've made a positive step. But if the number of badly broken 4
generation old Lotus MTAs that are still running are any indication, this
means that if they fix it tomorrow, it will cease being a problem in around
2030.
--
I'm going to change my name to 'Squawk' because that is what my parrots
call me.
Nick Simicich mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or (last choice)
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://scifi.squawk.com/njs.html -- Stop by and Light Up The World!
