Automatic mail answerers

[ddb at mrvax.DEC]

An even more amusing situation can occur when a person sends mail to
somebody to say he is going out of town, then sets up his own answering
maching -- if the other person already had an answerer set up!  The
infinite loop can be avoided if automatic mail answerers are coded to keep
track of who they have already sent to, and send no more than once to a
given address.  

This is implemented in the (otherwise despicable) VMS mail system, and has
saved a lot of trouble.

(This by itself will also prevent SOME of the deluge to moderators, but
the individual- and site-specific don't-reply-to lists that Lauren suggests
will do it better.)