Charlie Summers charlie@lofcom.com wrote:

I've found no real good way of handling brain-damaged "vacation" responses...I've taken he tact of IMMEDIATELY unsubscribing the person, and telling them with a canned response they will be welcomed back only when their "vacation" responder properly discriminates against mailing lists...but that's primarily because I haven't come up with a better system.

I'd be _really_ interested in hearing how other folks on the list handle these annoying things.

I do the same thing. I have a response all ready to go for the times when this happens:

Auto-generated responses cause problems for mailing lists.

When going away for any length of time, it is customary to unsubscribe or suspend mail from mailing lists or LISTSERVs to avoid problems -- especially when a stationery file has been enabled.

To avoid further responses from going to the list, your address has been removed.

--- submission follows -----------

And I attach a copy of their note with the hopes that they appreciate the fact that I just saved them from getting several hundred angry responses from list members who would not appreciate having to see their little message. (Since my primary/largest list is digest-only, I can normally remove such posts before they go out. My others are either very closely moderated, very small, or distribution-only consisting only of announcements with no posting by members. But those lists still do get vacation responses sometimes, and those people get the above message as well.)

The times when such messages have slipped past me, the on-list remarks have been pretty funny, especially when the stationery file includes a phone number. There are always suggestions that everyone on the list should write to the person and flood their mailboxes with responses like, "So how's your vacation? Having fun? We can't wait until you get back!" or call them up at work and pester them for being so inconsiderate.

My list doesn't get too many vacation messages any more. In fact, I find that letting one of these messages through every now and then can do wonders. All it takes is one good roasting of some poor schlub to keep everyone on their toes.

I try not to be too rude, though, because my list is for entertainment purposes and my goal really isn't to chase people away. Five years ago, my response used to be worded more strongly and made reference to "proper Netiquette" and such, but that was back when people still knew what Netiquette was. I changed to a more subtle approach -- a little guilt, but not an all-out preachy rant -- as each newbie generation has become more ignorant of the fact that there is actually such a thing as online etiquette.

Violet xoxox