Re: [anti-spam-wg@localhost] Contacts

["Dr. Jeffrey Race" <]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 09:51:41 +0100 (CET), Mally Mclane wrote:
>Just because an email is not delivered, does not mean the mailbox it was
>intended for is not in operation.

To my knowledge an MTA cannot drop a message on the floor.  Either
it is delivered or a message is returned that it can't be.  VERY
RARELY (in sending hundreds of messages weekly) have I ever had a
message delivery failure, and VERY RARELY have I ever failed to
receive a known-sent message.

Anyway this process is intended to put a stop to the kind of nonsense
we now encounter with spam-enablers like this:

 was unable to deliver to the intended recipient(s):

 postmaster "(2), ErrMsg=mail box space not enough, account=postmaster "

in which case you get a bounce that there is a mailbox but it
is not operational due to negligence by the miscreant RIR registrant.
Such people would have their IP address space withdrawn until they
can behave like responsible adults.

An MUA which fails to deliver messages is not operational in any
reasonable sense of the word

Jeffrey Race