It's that time of year again, when Telecom Digest readers book flights to far-away places, pack their clothes, and head out on vacation.
But ...
Many of the auto-response "vacation macro" features of various email servers are not able to give "bulk" email any special attention, and so I get "I'm on vacation" replies every time a post goes out. Of course, /I/ can intercept them, but if you're subscribed to any public mailing lists or Usenet groups that are /not/ moderated, then your automatic reply will be sent out for all to see, including, of course, your company email address.
So, please do yourself a favor, and ask your IT staff how to set the options so that vacation programs will /not/ reply to any emails marked "Bulk" (they know what that means), and I suggest you set up the rules so that only addresses in your addressbook, or those inside your company, will get any auto-reply at all.
Usenet's posted articles as far as I know remain on the server(s) and are not sent individually to subscribers like bulk spam email which could trigger "vacation" responses from an email server.
For the 30+ years I've been using Usenet I have always had to explicitly use a Usenet reader or an email client configured to contact a Usenet server(s) for me to see anything.
In other words, Bill, I don't see how it's possible for you to be receiving "vacation" messages from comp.dcom.telecom "subscribers" unless you are emailing them directly in addition to also injecting the moderator-approved c.d.telecom articles onto a Usenet server.
For example, the Usenet server I use is eternal-september:
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I have to explicitly use knews or Thunderbird to connect to that server to see anything in comp.dcom.telecom -- absolutely NOTHING appears in my email inbox that could ever send a "vacation" email back to you regarding comp.dcom.telecom unless it's private email directly from you and I'd still never have a "vacation" email sent to you because I don't use the "vacation" facility.
If you're receiving "vacation" messages simply by approving articles and injecting them for worldwide distribution onto your Usenet server then something is seriously wrong with your setup.
Describing your distribution setup and approving this article will encourage all subscribers to offer possible "fixes" that will prevent "vacation" messages being received by you.
Just trying to be helpful. :-)
Thad
***** Moderator's Note *****
I appreciate the help.
The Telecom Digest is available in its original form, as a mailing list, as well as via Usenet. Since the Digest predates Usenet, we're still delivering it via email as well as on comp.dcom.telecom, for those who prefer to receive emails instead.
Interested readers may send a message to majordomo atsign telecom-digest.org, with the word "help" in the body of the message.
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You can read every one of 68,960 messages currently in the archive, search by name or topic, comment on any message, or start a new topic.
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Neal McLain
***** Moderator's Note *****
What Neal is pointing out is that Google will, with some prodding, let its users see the Usenet archives. These are not, however, "Google" groups: I reserved a group for the digest some time ago, but it's not in use. It's just a placeholder, to keep the name.
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