[Mailman-Users] VERP and bounce-counting: Offer to create a Mailman patch

[Norbert Bollow]

> Bounce counting under Mailman does give numbers, but they are
> unreliable and shouldn't be used for anything other than SWAGs.  To
> get "real" bounce counts you'd not only have to use VERP across your
> subscriber base, but also VERP across your mailings so that every
> message you send not only has a unique return address for each
> subscriber, but also has a unique and trackable return address for
> each message sent to each subscriber.
> 
> This is doable, but is not entirely trivial.  Its quite outside of
> Mailman's base area of interest.

For those of us who run Mailman on Qmail, it's however very
desirable to add support to Mailman for making use of Qmail's
VERP features.  When/if I'll create a patch to this effect,
it'll be easy to include functionality for accurate bounce-
counting.

I hereby offer to create such a patch under the following
variation of the "Street Performer Protocol" ( the original
Street Performer Protocol is described in 
http://www.counterpane.com/street_performer.pdf )

Those who are interested in such a patch are invited to send me,
by private email, an informal offer of a sum in USD that they'd
pay me if I create such a patch.  If the total amount offered is
at least USD1000, then I will draft an agreement that these
interested parties will sign and fax to me.  This agreement will
detail exactly what the patch will do, and it will contain the
promise of the interested party to pay the specified sum after I
release a patch that meets the specifications.  If I get such
agreements covering at least USD1000, then I will create the
patch and publish it.

Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
A member of FreeDevelopers and the DotGNU Steering Committee: dotgnu.org
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet   (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59       Fax +41 1 972 20 69      http://thinkcoach.com
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