[Gllug] [OT] spam accident

[Phil Reynolds]

On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 10:29:13AM +0100, Tom Schutzer-Weissmann wrote:
> at school we often had spam, mashed potato and beetroot for lunch, and
> the pink-purple result usually looked like a gruesome accident - but I
> don't want to bore you with fond memories...
> 
> Someone at work receives emails from an organisation who sent one
> particular email to about 200 people. The email somehow "got replicated"
> and filled up our POP server and many others with 1000s of copies of
> itself.
> 
> The organisation responsible for this accidental DOS have explained that
> this was because of a dodgy email server 'somewhere in Shropshire' madly
> spawning copies of the email, but I wondered if putting so many
> addresses into one email might be partly responsible. Has anyone come
> across something similar?
> 
> Perhaps I should suggest they use proper mailing list software?

What a good idea!

In my second job, there were people there who would email everybody with
their "community notices"... all addresses, multiple To: fields.

As I worked in a department which had its own email system, of which I
was in charge, I used to spend pretty much two days every time one of
these came through explaining to people why their email was taking so
long to open.

A proper "all" mailing list, preferably suitably moderated, should have
existed, and I told the people responsible for the central system that
on several occasions.

-- 
Phil Reynolds
 o  ____ mail: phil at tinsleyviaduct.com
|L_ \  / Web: http://www.tinsleyviaduct.com/phil/
(_)- \/  Waltham 67, Emley Moor 69, Droitwich 79, Windows 95
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