deon wrote to All <=-
* Its marked HOLD after 21 days
* Its marked DOWN after 35 days
* Its DE-LISTED after 45 days
This assessment is done on Sunday's at 1am (GMT+10), so you could potentially add 6 more days, if they go idle on a Sunday after 1am.
DE-LISTED is semi-destructive in that mail exports are stopped, uncollected mail is removed and the address is marked as deleted. Its normally pretty easy to come back - by re-activating the address, resubscribing, and an areafix to resend uncollected mail. The other
states are non-destructive.
Emails/Netmails are sent to the offending node at each stage, as well
as a post here - so that in case its a surprise, the sysop can look/fix
it or reach out. The only thing they need to do is poll in and collect mail before DE-LIST, and their status is reset.
What I'm proposing to change this:
* Its marked HOLD after 14 days - mail will continue to be exported, netmails will still be queued * Its marked DOWN after 21 days -
echomail exports will stop, and netmail will bounce (so the sender
knows they are not here) * Its marked DOWN after 45 days - outstanding mail is removed, and the address is deleted - I may also look into bouncing any queued netmails, so the sender knows they never got it.
I've noticed that when sysops go AWOL, they normally dont come back if they have been away after 21 days, and with my proposed changes, this means they would have received two emails (and queued netmails) letting them know.
Any thoughts on these proposed changes?
...¢E¢n
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
I'm thinking of making some changes on Hub 3, mainly to reduce the unnessary work that clrghouz does - but also because I'm planning on playing with something new (for shits and giggles, time permitting).
At the moment, when clrghouz doesnt see a node for a period of time, the node transitions through various states:
* Its marked HOLD after 21 days
* Its marked DOWN after 35 days
* Its DE-LISTED after 45 days
This assessment is done on Sunday's at 1am (GMT+10), so you could potentially add 6 more days, if they go idle on a Sunday after 1am.
DE-LISTED is semi-destructive in that mail exports are stopped, uncollected mail is removed and the address is marked as deleted. Its normally pretty easy to come back - by re-activating the address, resubscribing, and an areafix to resend uncollected mail. The other
states are non-destructive.
Emails/Netmails are sent to the offending node at each stage, as well as
a post here - so that in case its a surprise, the sysop can look/fix it
or reach out. The only thing they need to do is poll in and collect mail before DE-LIST, and their status is reset.
What I'm proposing to change this:
* Its marked HOLD after 14 days - mail will continue to be exported, netmails will still be queued
* Its marked DOWN after 21 days - echomail exports will stop, and
netmail will bounce (so the sender knows they are not here)
* Its marked DOWN after 45 days - outstanding mail is removed, and the address is deleted - I may also look into bouncing any queued netmails,
so the sender knows they never got it.
This assessment is done on Sunday's at 1am (GMT+10), so you could potentially add 6 more days, if they go idle on a Sunday after 1am.
What I'm proposing to change this:
* Its marked HOLD after 14 days - mail will continue to be exported, netmails will still be queued
* Its marked DOWN after 21 days - echomail exports will stop, and
netmail will bounce (so the sender knows they are not here)
* Its marked DOWN after 45 days - outstanding mail is removed, and the address is deleted - I may also look into bouncing any queued netmails,
so the sender knows they never got it.
No problems here. Still giving plenty of notification and allowing for correction of absence. Always considered your policies real lenient, myself.
If they are not connecting to pickup mail / files then the only communication left is email so a weekly email after the first gives them no excuse, the only other option is a SMS.
Curious why the assessment is only done once per week? I have this as part of my nightly maintenance. Of course I don't have anywhere near the number of nodes you handle.
I think this is a good balance. You are more lenient than I am, I do:
At 21 days the node is removed from the nodelist and its configuration is removed.
I used to set the node to "Hold" in the nodelist at 7 and then "Down" at 14 days just to make a distinction, but since they're usually not reachable just opted for "Down".
Re: RE: Proposed changes on Hub 3
By: Terry Roati to deon on Sat May 16 2026 10:23 pm
Howdy,
If they are not connecting to pickup mail / files then the only
communication left is email so a weekly email after the first gives them
no
excuse, the only other option is a SMS.
Yeah, never thought of SMS, but wouldnt implement it. I dont collect
phone numbers, so its not really an option. I dont really hand out my
phone number unless there is no option - I'm sick of the spam I get as a result...
...כמון
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: I'm playing with ANSI+videotex - wanna play too? (21:2/116)
| Sysop: | Sarah |
|---|---|
| Location: | Portland, Oregon |
| Users: | 270 |
| Nodes: | 16 (0 / 16) |
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| Files: | 85,199 |
| U/L today: |
554 files (10,683M bytes) |
| D/L today: |
161,152 files (55,424M bytes) |
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