Problems with automatic (\"answering machine\") mail responders

Wayne A. Christopher faustus at ucbcad.UUCP
Fri Jul 12 06:26:11 AEST 1985


> It's my experience that by having my automatic mail answerer check
> 1) that's the mail is addressed personally to me (not a mailing list),
> 2) that is hasn't replied before to the same person, 
> most problems with "answreing machine" responders can be solved, without
> adding an exception list.  [Of course, the list used in 2), above,
> could be used as an exception list as well.]
>     I guess my point is that to avoid responding automatically
> to mailing lists & such, a check to make sure the mail is directed
> to you "personally" is probably better than an exception list; it
> avoids problems when you forget (inevitably) to include all possible
> mailing lists.
>   Greg Dudek

Also, make sure that the letter isn't coming from another mail answering
program if possible. A program I wrote called "mp" always appended "- (mp)"
to the end of the subject line, so that it wouldn't cause infinite mail
loops when two people were using it and somehow one mailed to the other.

	Wayne



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