Administrivia: Questions about the List

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Cypherdenizens,

Sorry to bother the List, but two things have come up that I need some
feedback on. Two items:

1. Is the list sending out messages in a defective (slow) way, or is
my service (Netcom) bouncing a lot of mail, thus causing these delays
as toad attempts resends?

2. I'm getting a lot of error messages from Julf's site, saying my
messages cannot be delivered to "an2757938" and the like. This used to
be a problem, but was fixed by Eric Hughes a year or so ago. It
appears to be back again. Are others seeing this, too?


First, I seem to be having delays in Cypherpunks mail of about
1-2 days on about 5-10% of all messages. This shows up as me not
seeing messages others are already responding to (because 90-95% of
all messages are getting to me in the usual prompt way). I especially
notice this, of course, with my own messages. (I can't test whether
other mail is being delayed, because I'm no longer on Extropians and
so Cypherpunks accounts for 95% of all my mail.)

For example, the item on video surveillance cameras, forwarded from
alt.conspiracy, did not not reach me until a day after others had
already posted public responses. And just today I got a 5-day old
message (Steve Bellovin's "Re: Clipper Cracks Appear"). The message I
posted today about "Shout it to the world: Clipper is Compromised!"
has still not appeared at my site, although some others have already
responded to me about it (ironically, Steve Bellovin did).

My question is this: Is this just _me_ (and possibly Netcom), or are
others seeing these delays? My suspicion has been that Netcom is
bouncing mail, because of recent overloading and NFS problems, reports
from other about their mail being delayed (usually this implies a
bounce and resend), and from the lack of other messages here
complaining about delayed messages.

Could Hugh Daniel, if he is reading this, or Eric Hughes, or anyone
else who has access to the list at toad.com give me some hint as to
whether I should beat on Netcom some more? 

Could other Netcommers here, of which there may be as many as 50, tell
me what experiences they've had?

The second item is also an administrivia issue: I'm getting dozens of
error messages from daemon@penet.finland.etc. or somesuch (I can't
look right now at the precise address) telling me my mail cannot be
delivered, will not be delivered, is being returned, etc. It looks
like the old blocks Eric had installed to prevent Julf's system from
doing this are no longer working. (There may be more accurate
explanations....)

Anyone else seeing this? Anything we can do? Does the new automated
subscription software (majordomo?) have anything to do with this?

If people send me comments, I'll summarize--unless someone really
knows the Big Picture and wants to just summarize it all here.

Thanks, 

--Tim May

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
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"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."