[Mailman-Users] Detecting Autoresponders

[Matthias Schmidt]

Am/On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:27:22 -0500 schrieb/wrote Grant Taylor:

>On 6/28/2009 8:15 PM, Mark Sapiro wrote:
>> I would say the autoresponder is broken if it is responding 
>> repeatedly to the same address on behalf of the same recipient. I 
>> would also say it's broken it it responds to the list for an 
>> individual message (not a digest) unless the list is anonymous and 
>> puts the list address in the From: of delevered posts. Finally, this 
>> is probably more controversial, but I think it's broken if it can't 
>> identify its own autoresponses from Message-ID: or something else and 
>> not respond to one of its own messages.
>
>I *REALLY* /wish/ that was the case.  I've got an end user that has set 
>up an Out of Office (a.k.a. OoO) auto-reply in Outlook that is replying 
>to every frigging message that comes in.
>
>OoO auto responders usually reply to the From: (header) address of 
>messages as they have on concept of the SMTP envelope sender.  So if the 
>mailing list either sets the From: or Reply-To: header, that's where the 
>OoO replies will go.
>
>I have seen more than a few OoO auto-responders that generate a 
>completely new message to the From: / Reply-To: address with out any 
>form of identification as to who it is replying to.
>
>In my opinion, OoO auto responders are probably some of the worst things 
>in email.  I've been in an environment where two OoO auto responders 
>were battling with each other and generated almost 100,000 messages over 
>a weekend.

we immediately ban people sending autoresponses to a list.
We've put that in our list rules.

Basically it's up to the list participant to set up his/her
autoresponder to not reply to any list messages.

Probably one could set up a filter or something to catch most of the
autoresponses and filter them out.
cheers,
Matthias