[Nottingham] Too much traffic

[Chris Hastie]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003, Alex Tibbles <alex_tibbles@yahoo.co.uk> wrote
>> No, they're not, because each message has to be
>> emailed to each member
>> on the list. If the number of users increases or
>> the number of messages
>> increases, the overall traffic on the lists server
>> rises with a N^2
>> complexity. A forum's traffic would be closer to
>> linear.
>i fail to see how a mail list is n^2 versus linear =N
>for forum.
>
>email:
>1 email comes in, M (= number of users) emails come
>out, giving (1 + M) * L (length of message) bytes
>total. so, throughput is N * L * (1 + M). N is the
>number of message / unit time, and L is the average
>message length.
>
OK, try again from my subscribed address this time (what was I saying 
earlier about a problem with Imp being that I can't associate particular 
identities with particular folders...)

Less than that I'd say, depending on MTA and the distribution of 
differing domains in your subscriber list. The number of messages coming 
out will be <= M because users whose messages are destined for the same 
MX will not get separate messages (unless using VERP or some other means 
of varying the message on a per user basis). One message will have 
multiple RCPT TO: instructions in the SMTP transaction.

I run a mailing list of around 300 members, yet find that only about 
half that number of individual messages are sent. Some are bound for 
only one person, some for a dozen (all the hotmail.com addresses 
together for example), but it averages out at around 2 recipients per 
message.
-- 
Chris Hastie