[Mailman-Users] AOL redacts user addresses even with VERP and full personalization enabled

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Brad Knowles writes:
 > On Jun 18, 2012, at 11:44 AM, Lindsay Haisley wrote:
 > 
 > > It might be very convenient to have what one might call EVERP, where the
 > > recipient address is encrypted into the envelope sender address, as an
 > > alternative choice to Mailman's VERP implementation.

It's just VERP, please.  It doesn't require any difference in MTA
behavior at all.

 > Uh, trust me -- you really don't want to get into the discussion of
 > creating new SMTP protocol enhancements.  I was on the DRUMS WG.
 > You really, really don't want to go there.

I don't understand the technical issue here.  VERP simply requires the
(reasonably standard) existing feature that the final MTA ignore
random goop in the mailbox spec if properly marked (usually with '+',
sometimes with a '-').  As far as I know, no MTA ever checks that the
random goop is well-formed random goop -- that's an oxymoron, isn't
it?  If this proposal won't fly, normal VERP shouldn't, either.

And even if one does, the ones we recommend don't, right?  So somebody
who wants to use Lindsay's proposal just needs to change MTAs.  (I
know that's not zero-cost, but machines are cheap these days; you can
dedicate a (virtual) machine to Mailman at very low cost.  I'll bet
Brian would do it for zero extra dollars per month over his standard
Mailman service! :-)