Good Thursday/Friday everybody! Unfortunate as it is, we are still encountering a lot of situations where people on this list are deliberately, so it seems, using implicit destinations when writing to this group. That, for those who do not understand this issue, means that they either add us as a secondary destination in the “To:” field, or even a primary one, or they do the same thing in the “CC:” field.
Whilst some groups tolerate this behaviour, carbon copying or sending to implicit destinations is actually an infringement of RFC list rules, on the part of the list owner, and neglect on the part of the sender. If all group moderators were to adhere to RFC guidelines more stringently, this problem would not exist because list members would be educated not to be so sloppy. However, regardless of what other list owners do, we here at Mac Access have our group configured not to permit our members to send to implicit destinations. This is about to change, although not so that we permit the behaviour. We’re going to make it actually more stringent because unfortunately, by sending to implicit destinations, you cause us a lot of unnecessary work because we have to manually go in and exercise our discretion as to whether to permit the post to reach the group or not. OK, so it seems that we do need to make it more stringent. I have, therefore, discussed this with gordon and we have agreed that the only solution is to have the list server automatically bounce, reject the post irrespective of who sent it and why they opted to use implicit destinations. It isn’t often that there is a good reason for doing this, so it’s time, we feel, to close the loophole once and for all. Therefore, when we make the change, (which will be very soon), your messages will bounce if you attempt to send to multiple destinations of which Mac Access is just one. This is a decision we reached following repeated transgressions on the part of one member, and a couple on the part of a couple more. We clearly state in the list policy document that this behaviour is not acceptable here; although it would appear that most people just delete the document we send them when they join without reading it through first. Short of developing a script with a questionnaire which people need to complete when they join the group, this seems to be the only way to enforce good behaviour. Such a questionnaire would, I am sure, be tedious for the prospective member and it would very definitely be so for us to develop. So we’d rather not go down that road. OK, so you’ve forced our hand. We now have little choice but to play it. This change will, therefore, be implemented by me very shortly, and will be there from the start when the new server comes on line to replace this one. That leads me to the next point I’d like to make you aware of. Now that Gordon is in the summer recess from his post at a local academy of excellence, he has been working hard on the new server. We have invested heavily in new hardware for the server, as in a 12-core Mac Pro with 16GB of RAM, and 5TB of internal storage. it also is being deployed across two of our networks rather than just the one as is currently the case so that we can try to improve still further on our 97% uptime for the last 12 months. The other 2.5% of the time, those tines when we were off line, were all due to problems with our connectivity providers. We have also invested in new SSL technologies, and will shortly update that. We also now have a power-packed PC which is to be used as a dedicated server for other functionality, and to improve still further our load balancing strategy behind the scenes. At some point during the next year, we also plan to upgrade our network to the equivalent of what they used to call a “T1” connection. In other words, our servers will sit behind a bi-directional 100Megabyte Fibre-optic POP. That will very definitely improve our services. But that’s for the next few months. We have received an excellent response off list from those members who wish to remain participants of the group. We are also aware that there was a recent unfortunate thread on list predominantly cause by members who simply disregarded what we asked about posting off list only, and who bandied it about on list. We have not added any of the addresses of those who posted on list requesting to be ported over, so if you have not written to us off, not on, off list, you’re running short of time in which to do so if you do not wish your membership to be disrupted. Oh yes, and if you happen to receive unexpected copies of the welcome packet into your inbox, don’t worry. That just means you’ve been added to the new service and do not need to take any action. Gordon is working very hard in order to try and come as close to our self-imposed deadline regarding moving dates. However, it may have to be put back by a couple of days owing to a couple of technical issues which we want to get ironed out before the new server goes live. I can tell you now though that our primary mail server address will change. Currently, it is: mail.tft-bbs.co.uk but it will soon change to: mail.mac-access.net in order to retain consistency. More on the pending changes later. But please be aware that your efforts to use us as an implicit destination will not succeed so we urge you to make things easier for yourselves; don’t! if you wish to comment on any of the above, please, please write to us privately. The place to send your comments is: supp...@mac-access.net but I should warn you now that if you start swearing at me, I won’t get wound up and argue with you, I’ll simply delete you. ;-) Just to be clear, that last comment was meant very much tongue in cheek. Warm regards Lynne <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
