Message-ID: <0p409xnDExSE07nMM0@aa.fv.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 12:21:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@aa.fv.com>
To: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to>, drums@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: Your mail to Nathaniel (was Re: how final newlines actually work)
In-Reply-To: <19980318090204.5575.qmail@cr.yp.to>
References: <772.890206980.1@aa.fv.com>
	<19980318090204.5575.qmail@cr.yp.to>

Dan -- If you got this from a DRUMS posting, that means there was a
mistake in my filter.  It should not have happened, and I will try to
fix it ASAP.  Mailing list mail is not supposed to trigger that reply. 
Sorry about that, and thank you for telling me.  

It wouldn't have hurt, however, for you to be a little friendlier in
your mail; there was no reason to assume that this was done out of
maliciousness or stupidity, instead of simply being a bug in my
software.  -- Nathaniel

PS -- I really am grateful to you for telling me about this.  I assume
this also happened to other people who subscribe to DRUMS, but none of
them mentioned it to me.  I apologize to the whole DRUMS mailing list
for this gaffe.  -- Nathaniel

Excerpts from mail.urgent: 18-Mar-98 Re: Your mail to Nathaniel .. "D.
J. Bernstein"@cr.yp. (876)

> This message is a response to some garbage I received privately.

> Nathaniel Borenstein's robot AUTOMATICALLY writes:
> > But Nathaniel still feels bad about sending a robotic 
> > response to human beings who correspond with him.

> I _didn't_ correspond with you. I sent a message to a mailing list that
> you happened to be a subscriber to. There was nothing in my message
> requesting a response from you.

> What would happen if everybody on a 60000-subscriber mailing list
> installed the same software that you did? Have you ever heard of
> ``Return-Receipt-To floods''?

> > When you get 600 
> > messages per day, however, you have to take drastic measures,

> I don't care how much mail you get. It is completely inexcusable to
> automatically reply to a message that doesn't mention you. Fix your
> robot.

> ---Dan
> Smaller, faster, safer than inetd+tcpd. http://pobox.com/~djb/ucspi-tcp.html


--------
In the long run men hit only what they aim at.  Therefore, though they
should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.  -- Thoreau

Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@fv.com>          |  FAQ & PGP key:
Chief Scientist, First Virtual Holdings    |  nsb+faq@nsb.fv.com
--------
In the long run men hit only what they aim at.  Therefore, though they
should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.  -- Thoreau

Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@fv.com>          |  FAQ & PGP key:
Chief Scientist, First Virtual Holdings    |  nsb+faq@nsb.fv.com