Non-deliverable messages

[Jacob_P...@qzcom.mailnet]

We who participate in ARPANET mailing lists via MAILNET have
to pay the charge not only of sending messages to the list,
but also of sending all messages from ARPANET to our site.

It is then rather a nuisance when we receive error-messages
that an entry which someone at our site made in an ARPANET
mailing list could not be delivered to one member of that mailing
list - information which is of very little value to us.

Could not this be solved in the following way:

(a) Such error-messages are sent to the SMTP-sender, not to the
author.

(b) ARPANET mailing lists, when redistributing messages, indicate
the postmaster at the site handling the mailing list, and not
the original author, as the SMTP sender when redistributing
the message.

[Jacob_P...@qzcom.mailnet]

Here is an example of the kind of messages we get, and have to
pay for. If the postmaster at the mailing list site had been
the SMTP-sender when re-transmitting from the mailing list,
this problem would not have occurred:

Lia...@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
@QZCOM:POSTMAST...@ODEN.MAILNET

Return-Path: <Lia...@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
Received: from MIT-MULTICS.ARPA by QZCOM.MAILNET; 25 Apr 84 10:38 +0100
From: Network_Server.Daemon at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Unable to deliver mail from POSTMAST...@QZCOM.MAILNET

Message will be returned under separate cover.
To: LAT...@RU-BLUE.ARPA at COLUMBIA-20.ARPA: Network mail authorization failure
Mail from POSTMAST...@QZCOM.MAILNET to LAT...@RU-BLUE.ARPA is not authorize
d

[KPJ_Jaak...@qzcom.mailnet]

Should not messages indicating problems of sending to a mailing list
item to a participant be sent to the mailing list request handler?
That is, for FOO-REQUESTS for mailing list FOO.

[Jacob_P...@qzcom.mailnet]

Yes, that sounds like a good idea. That would mean that
when the mailing list FOO sends out entries in the mailing
list to its subscribers, it should indicate "FOO-REQUEST"
as the SMTP sender (and not the original author of the
message!)