ATypI list scortched by Proprietary Software
The ATypI members list has blown up in an ugly way and many people tried to unsubscribe, because a proprietary software user was spamming the list but accidentally. How did this happen? A list member explained:
I had the same problem a while ago, that could be traced to an MS Outlook Express bug. When you sent mail box is over a certain size, the Outbox fails to place your message there and gets into a loop trying to do so - each time sending a new copy of the mail. The solution is to split up you sent mail- for instance per year.
This is a great example of the total madness of proprietary software. How is it POSSIBLE that this bug can go unfixed?
The ATypI list scortched by Proprietary Software by David Crossland, except the quotations and unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
November 30, 2007 |
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2 Responses to “ATypI list scortched by Proprietary Software”
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Hmm. That was just a guess from one list member about a possible cause. The list master explained today that the problem was between the mail-server and the list-server, not originating on the original machine. I don’t know what software ATypI uses for its mail and list servers, but there is a good chance that it is open source: they use Zope and other open source software for the website.
That said, Outlook Express sucks and should be avoided like the plague.
Hi John!
Yes, the ATypI mailing list software is free software, and its a shame if it was misconfigured. The difference between a misconfiguration causing this problem and a bug in some proprietary software is that the misconfiguration can be fixed by ATypI or anyone they ask to fix it. With proprietary software, only the developer can, which is an awful situation… :-( Also, please consider using the term “free software” instead of “open source” :-)