e-mail delivery gone crazy

On 2007-08-17 08:33-0500 Boncek, John wrote:

> I've been subscribed for a long time, receiving regular
delivery.  Last
> night I received 42 messages from this list, with dates
as far back as
> October of last year.

Same here.  My guess is this mailing list has been
configured badly for the
case when the mail is temporarily undeliverable.  That would
explain why
only a small subset of the e-mail was held back
pseudo-randomly over the
course of the last year.  The algorithm appears to be hold
on to all the
first-time undeliverable mail until some fixed date in the
year.  That fixed
date appeared to be last night.

All the above is speculation of course, but something really
strange did
happen with a relatively small subset of the messages (I got
about 30
delivered last night) over the last year so I think it is
time to review the
configuration of this mailing list.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics
and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific
plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure
Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________
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gtk-i18n-list mailing list
gtk-i18n-listgnome.org

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A slight correction to my earlier message -- the count of 42
was correct
but the oldest date was August 12, 2006, which fits your
speculation of a
one-year window.

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan W. Irwin [mailto:irwinbeluga.phys.uvic.ca] 
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 9:35 AM
To: Boncek, John
Cc: gtk-i18n-listgnome.org
Subject: Re: e-mail delivery gone crazy

On 2007-08-17 08:33-0500 Boncek, John wrote:

> I've been subscribed for a long time, receiving regular
delivery.  Last
> night I received 42 messages from this list, with dates
as far back as
> October of last year.

Same here.  My guess is this mailing list has been
configured badly for
the
case when the mail is temporarily undeliverable.  That would
explain why
only a small subset of the e-mail was held back
pseudo-randomly over the
course of the last year.  The algorithm appears to be hold
on to all the
first-time undeliverable mail until some fixed date in the
year.  That
fixed
date appeared to be last night.

All the above is speculation of course, but something really
strange did
happen with a relatively small subset of the messages (I got
about 30
delivered last night) over the last year so I think it is
time to review
the
configuration of this mailing list.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics
and
Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific
plotting
software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure
Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________
_______________________________________________
gtk-i18n-list mailing list
gtk-i18n-listgnome.org

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-i18n-list

On 17/08/07, Alan W. Irwin <irwinbeluga.phys.uvic.ca>
wrote:
> On 2007-08-17 08:33-0500 Boncek, John wrote:
>
> > I've been subscribed for a long time, receiving
regular delivery.  Last
> > night I received 42 messages from this list, with
dates as far back as
> > October of last year.
>
> Same here.  My guess is this mailing list has been
configured badly for the
> case when the mail is temporarily undeliverable.  That
would explain why
> only a small subset of the e-mail was held back
pseudo-randomly over the
> course of the last year.  The algorithm appears to be
hold on to all the
> first-time undeliverable mail until some fixed date in
the year.  That fixed
> date appeared to be last night.
>
> All the above is speculation of course, but something
really strange did
> happen with a relatively small subset of the messages
(I got about 30
> delivered last night) over the last year so I think it
is time to review the
> configuration of this mailing list.

Another explanation is that lots of people that aren't
subscribed have
sent mail to the list - so they get moderated. The time of
the list
admins is precious so I think moderation doesn't happen very
often.
I'm sure that they would appreciate help with this if
someone can
spare the time. Even if I'm wrong with this I'm sure they
would still
appreciate the help ;)

Regards,
Daniel
_______________________________________________
gtk-i18n-list mailing list
gtk-i18n-listgnome.org

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-i18n-list

If moderation happens once a year, it would be better to
simply flush such
messages rather than moderate them.

Regards,
John Boncek

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Glassey [mailto:dglasseygmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:01 AM
To: Alan W. Irwin
Cc: Boncek, John; gtk-i18n-listgnome.org
Subject: Re: e-mail delivery gone crazy

On 17/08/07, Alan W. Irwin <irwinbeluga.phys.uvic.ca>
wrote:
> On 2007-08-17 08:33-0500 Boncek, John wrote:
>
> > I've been subscribed for a long time, receiving
regular delivery.
Last
> > night I received 42 messages from this list, with
dates as far back as
> > October of last year.
>
> Same here.  My guess is this mailing list has been
configured badly for
the
> case when the mail is temporarily undeliverable.  That
would explain why
> only a small subset of the e-mail was held back
pseudo-randomly over the
> course of the last year.  The algorithm appears to be
hold on to all the
> first-time undeliverable mail until some fixed date in
the year.  That
fixed
> date appeared to be last night.
>
> All the above is speculation of course, but something
really strange did
> happen with a relatively small subset of the messages
(I got about 30
> delivered last night) over the last year so I think it
is time to review
the
> configuration of this mailing list.

Another explanation is that lots of people that aren't
subscribed have
sent mail to the list - so they get moderated. The time of
the list
admins is precious so I think moderation doesn't happen very
often.
I'm sure that they would appreciate help with this if
someone can
spare the time. Even if I'm wrong with this I'm sure they
would still
appreciate the help ;)

Regards,
Daniel
_______________________________________________
gtk-i18n-list mailing list
gtk-i18n-listgnome.org

http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-i18n-list