IRL-LIMERICK-L Archives

From: "Dr. Jane Lyons" <>
Subject: Unexpected Unsubscription from mail lists
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 17:48:01 +0100

If I send an email to any person and that person's inbox is full - then that
email gets returned to me..........thereby increasing the number of mails to
my inbox.

When any person subscribed to this list sends an email to the list - then a
copy of that email goes to every person subscribed to the list. If a
person's in box is full, then that email is returned to the sender - in this
case the list - not the person who sent it.

If ten people send emails to the list and there are ten subscribers whose
email boxes are full - then 100 emails are returned to the sender - the
list.

Lists have automatic managers - like robots - and these managers try to make
sure that the web space allocated to any list is not filled with returned
emails. So - all lists - e.g. those hosted by rootsweb, those hosted by
Yahoo have a limit on the number of times emails 'bounce' back to them from
any individual email address. A bouncing email is one that was sent to an
address and was returned by the server at that address if that persons email
box was full or if that email address no longer exists.

Rootsweb listmanagers can set their list so that an email can bounce from an
address a certain number of times and once that number of emails have been
returned from that email address - then that email address is automatically
unsubscribed from the list.

The list manager on a Yahoo list has no control over the number of times an
email may bounce - but it's usually about three times.

If you suddenly find yourself receiving an email telling you that you have
been unsubscribed from a rootsweb list when you didn't ask to be
unsubscribed, then it's always a case of too many mails having been returned
from your server - for whatever reason. Sometimes, its as simple as the
server going down for a few hours and three or four emails being sent to
your account and returned during that few hours - you don't know a thing
about it............you may not even get the 'You have been unsubscribed
email" from the rootsweb list - all you may notice is that you are
receiving no emails from that list.

It's the same with Yahoo - except you don't normally receive a You have been
unsubbed email from Yahoo - you just find yourself not receiving emails from
the list. Yahoo does send a 're-activate your account' email to your yahoo
email address if you have one............and I'm afraid I don't know if it
sends one to your regular email address.

If you receive a 'You have been unsubscribed' email from any list, then
remember the reason is simple - emails have been returned from your account
for whatever reason and all you have to do is re-subscribe to the list if
you want to be subscribed to it.

Jane
List-Admin

This thread:

• Unexpected Unsubscription from mail lists by "Dr. Jane Lyons" <>