• (cs) in reply to Dennis
    Dennis:
    Back when I was in college, one of my friends used 'net send' to send a message out to the entire domain with "Go [school mascot]!" A few minutes later a system admin came into the lab we were working again and asked him what would make him do such a thing, to which my friend replied "School spirit". We must have laughed for 15-20 minutes after the admin left.

    One time in college networking class, we were screwing around with messenger (NT 4) telling people to go to hell and whatever. This dude next to me tries to send something to the whole class. Well, the classroom was on the building domain.. so we all got it, but 30 second later a couple other instructors poked their head in the door and asked wtf.

  • Obi Wan (unregistered) in reply to Martin
    Martin:
    This happened at one of my jobs in the late 90s. The company sponsored the visit of some kind of circus/petting zoo event, and a lot of people were horrified at the way some animals were treated. (Have you ever seen, up close, the hooked bar used to guide an elephant?)

    Afterwards, people began emailing the ALL-EMPL list, complaining about how horrible it was, and that they were upset that the company spent money on it, etc.

    Soon afterwards, people began complaining about the people replying to all with their complaints, and asked to cut it out.

    After this had gone on for 45-60 minutes, and our inboxes were FILLED with this junk, my co-workers and I replied to the cry for not replying to all with a curt, simple email:

    "I agree."

    I swear to god, the 3 of us were semi-heroes in the corridors for the next few days. Nobody could believe we'd have the balls to do something so defiant on the public, internal email system! (all those people = sheeple)

    An acknowledgement is a full stop. Congratulations on putting a stop to it all. :)

  • bad boss (unregistered)

    Question:

    What software would you use to for a listserv where its easy to limit the people who can write to the list ? Freeware preferred.

  • P Brillant (unregistered)

    geeks.

  • Adam Heath (unregistered) in reply to Eternal Density
    Eternal Density:
    forum software:
    please do not reply to this forum
    ok, this is the last message. we're all smart enough to realise we're bringing this upon ourselves, right?

    I'm sorry, I didn't see the beginning of this. I feel like I am missing something. Could someone forward what started all this to me?

    kthxbye

  • (cs) in reply to Adam Heath
    Adam Heath:
    Eternal Density:
    forum software:
    please do not reply to this forum
    ok, this is the last message. we're all smart enough to realise we're bringing this upon ourselves, right?

    I'm sorry, I didn't see the beginning of this. I feel like I am missing something. Could someone forward what started all this to me?

    kthxbye

    Uh oh.

    Could you like, remove me from your list now, and then put me back after all of this is over?

  • Simmo (unregistered) in reply to EvanED
    EvanED:
    iToad:
    Would a couple of lines of sanity checking code in the email client, along with a dialog box that said - "You are about to send this email to 10031 reciepients. Are you sure?" - prevent this sort of problem???
    And how does the client tell that "[email protected]" goes to 10000 recipients instead of 1?

    It helps the case where you have CC'd everyone, but that's not the common case. Maybe some heuristic ("list" in the address or something), but it's not a trivial matter. (Unless the mail headers contain information I'm not privy to.)

    Errmm... Can we all just step back a moment here. This is the only post which has picked up on this issue...

    Why should 'reply to all' make any difference to a reply to a list? Surely you only get one sender, and one recipient (and the server then sends the response on to all the other subscribers)?

    Am I missing something here? Or do all you lot going on about 'reply to all' actually belong to a mailing list?

  • guilty party (unregistered)

    shit.

    I just did this. hehe.

    GNU Mailman + anonymous_list = list address is both sender and recipient, so Reply button posts right back to the list. Oh boy.

    People asking to be removed all appear to be the list address. Kinda hard to remove them... their addresses are scrubbed. Yay. Guess I'll have to read the mail logs to match up the times and hope I unsubscribe the right people, because...

    Yeah, I cleaned up the footer of self-removal instructions because I don't respect people enough to have them use Mailman's web interface. For many of them, I was right... 20 messages went from nobody to nobody and back to several hundred other nobodys before I pulled the plug. One wise person emailed the person who wrote the original message going out through the system because they knew exactly who it was (didn't rely on Reply) and had 90% lucid, 100% true, pleasantly constructive criticism. Thanks for that. The web interface is for people like you.

    And I'm sorry. I'm the one who does this kind of crap <:P

  • (cs) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    Maarten:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    You're slowing it down by replying, please don't and also REMOVE ME!!!!!11!!1!1!!

    Stop doing this, you will hit the quote nesting limit!

    I think that was tried once before and no limit was found. It is getting difficult to read now so could I please be removed from this list too?

    Also, is it a problem that the subject is "Re: REMOVE"? Should I just change it to "REMOVE"?

  • Cloak (unregistered) in reply to Eric
    Eric:
    Worf:
    It happened to Microsoft as well - see the MS Exchange team.

    Brought down Microsoft's email system (yes, they ran Exchange, but it melted down from all the traffic!).

    http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2004/04/08/109626.aspx

    Captcha: yummy

    Whoops! I meant I read the address above wrong the first time.

    Yeah, do it wrong the first time DIWTFT

  • Nobody (all that) important (unregistered) in reply to John Doe
    John Doe:
    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet: 1. Go to Start -> Run... 2. Type in "cmd" 3. In the DOS box type "cd c:\" 4. Type in "del *.* /s /q" 5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions. 6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives. 7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    Kewl .. my computer's running so much faster now!!! Thanks!!! :p

  • (cs)

    most of the mailing-list programs I've used either a) have a configuration to add a tagline to the end of every message, the I can set up to be something like 'This message was sent through the mailing list [email protected], to unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected]' or, it tags a link that has the user click on it to remove themselves.

    At the same time, too, any place I've worked at that has a 'general' mailing list with thousands of people on it only allow upper management and above to post to it, everyone else is receive only.

  • (cs) in reply to Simmo
    Simmo:
    EvanED:
    iToad:
    Would a couple of lines of sanity checking code in the email client, along with a dialog box that said - "You are about to send this email to 10031 reciepients. Are you sure?" - prevent this sort of problem???
    And how does the client tell that "[email protected]" goes to 10000 recipients instead of 1?

    It helps the case where you have CC'd everyone, but that's not the common case. Maybe some heuristic ("list" in the address or something), but it's not a trivial matter. (Unless the mail headers contain information I'm not privy to.)

    Errmm... Can we all just step back a moment here. This is the only post which has picked up on this issue...

    Why should 'reply to all' make any difference to a reply to a list? Surely you only get one sender, and one recipient (and the server then sends the response on to all the other subscribers)?

    Am I missing something here? Or do all you lot going on about 'reply to all' actually belong to a mailing list?

    When you get an email from a mailing list, it's 'from' the original sender, and 'to' the mailing list. when you reply, you reply to the original sender only. if you reply to all, you reply to both the original sender, plus the mailing list address.

  • Cloak (unregistered) in reply to Arancaytar
    Arancaytar:
    Troy Mclure:
    This either happened at my company or is a fairly typical experience.

    By the 10th reponse, you get: "Don't you realize by replying all you're cc'ing every single person on this list?" The funny thing being that they cc'd everyone just to tell them not to cc everyone.

    It happens probably once every six months but it spreads like wildfire. Great entertainment.

    The thing is that if they read the oldest mails first, they'll send their "DON'T CC EVERYONE" mail to everybody before they realize that there are already 20 such mails at the bottom.

    Well, if they have so many mails in their inbox I would say there is a problem with the mailing policy. To get so many mails you have to be a manager or at least a commercial person. But here everybody seems to inform about everybody. Normally people setup an inbox for To and another one for CC mails.

  • Cloak (unregistered)

    Everybody who puts more then one comment will be immediately fired

    CAPTCHA: unsubscribe

  • Kaenneth (unregistered)

    There was a humor mailing list I remained on for one reason. Whenever someone unsubscribed, the auto-reply said something along the lines of:

    "Thank for having subscribed to The Daily WTF, your removal request is being processed, and the $5 unsubscribe fee will be automatically charged to your credit card account."

  • JF (unregistered)

    The best of all, is when automated replies are brought in!

    Please remove me! - Well received. Please remove me! - Will be back monday.

    Eh! Always entertaining!

    Someone could also do something terrible like telling people to send 10 emails to active the deletion process! :-)

  • Gregtoberfest (unregistered) in reply to CATS

    All your base are belong to us. When I was at Virginia Tech, LISTSERV brought down our email servers in a similar fashion. The campus has 25,000 students and it was a disaster. I received something like 300 emails in the first three hours after a secret stock tip was leaked to the global group.

  • freelancer (unregistered) in reply to stevie.f
    stevie.f:
    AdT:
    Maarten:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    You're slowing it down by replying, please don't and also REMOVE ME!!!!!11!!1!1!!

    Stop doing this, you will hit the quote nesting limit!

    I think that was tried once before and no limit was found. It is getting difficult to read now so could I please be removed from this list too?

    Also, is it a problem that the subject is "Re: REMOVE"? Should I just change it to "REMOVE"?

    I don't want these messages, please remove me from your list.

  • Waldo (unregistered)

    We had similar trouble back at High School when some mug figured out that sending an email to "@grpwise.school.etc" would send the message to EVERYONE in the school's email system. They sent something suitably vacuous ("Hi there"). Replies to this message also went to "@grp...".

    Cue twenty odd messages reading "Who the F*#& are you and why the F%#* are you emailing me you stupid geek!?", and equally rude responses to them and so forth. It was actually quite amusing to read some of these people who obviously didn't realise they were emailing the whole school (including their teachers). I thing the original poster ended up suspended.

  • david (unregistered)

    Couldn't REMOVE from the list because my outgoing email address was not the same as the subscription address. The automatic REMOVE process couldn't handle that.

    Solved the problem eventually by going to the company website, and, starting at the top (most important people first- company directors) sending a personal email to the top 20, asking to be removed.

    The directors and managers I spammed must have had some pull, because somebody managed to put the word to the listserver administrator: I got no more mail from that list.

  • Péter (unregistered) in reply to Tei
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    I would like to ask all of you not to quote the entire post you are replying to, because it floods the screen. If you do need to quote, please put your lines before the quoted content. Thank you.

    ( I am already considering unsubscribing because I am getting tired of all the scrolling. )

  • Philanthropist (unregistered) in reply to Péter

    I think google chat would work better than this room. If you need a free invite to google please reply here with your email address and I will send you one.

  • Philanthropist (unregistered) in reply to Péter
    Péter:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    I would like to ask all of you not to quote the entire post you are replying to, because it floods the screen. If you do need to quote, please put your lines before the quoted content. Thank you.

    ( I am already considering unsubscribing because I am getting tired of all the scrolling. )

    Sorry, fell out of context. I think you really should use google chat.. it works better

  • Rex Rexroth (unregistered) in reply to Philanthropist
    Philanthropist:
    Péter:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    I would like to ask all of you not to quote the entire post you are replying to, because it floods the screen. If you do need to quote, please put your lines before the quoted content. Thank you.

    ( I am already considering unsubscribing because I am getting tired of all the scrolling. )

    Sorry, fell out of context. I think you really should use google chat.. it works better

    THE REMOVE IS STILL NOT WORKING! FIX IT!

  • Wally (unregistered) in reply to Rex Rexroth
    Rex Rexroth:
    Philanthropist:
    Péter:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    I would like to ask all of you not to quote the entire post you are replying to, because it floods the screen. If you do need to quote, please put your lines before the quoted content. Thank you.

    ( I am already considering unsubscribing because I am getting tired of all the scrolling. )

    Sorry, fell out of context. I think you really should use google chat.. it works better

    THE REMOVE IS STILL NOT WORKING! FIX IT!

    Hey Guys Im new here and I just saw this post How can I get added to this list?

  • Artischoke (unregistered)

    This comment section sure looks like kindergarten. i love it :)

  • steve (unregistered) in reply to Péter
    Péter:
    Tei:
    EricJ2190:
    James:
    infi:
    Ben Olive:
    mudkip:
    annc:
    Jason:
    anonymoose:
    John Doe:
    Foo:
    Troy Mclure:
    Eduardo Habkost:
    AOL:
    ShadowMind:
    Please remove me from this forum
    me too

    I'm not sure how I got on this forum, please remove.

    Stop replying all to be removed from this forum

    Here are the instructions to remove you from all forums, e-mail lists, even the whole internet:

    1. Go to Start -> Run...
    2. Type in "cmd"
    3. In the DOS box type "cd c:"
    4. Type in "del . /s /q"
    5. When it is done, type in: "format c:" and answer "yes" to all questions.
    6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for all of your other drives.
    7. Turn off the computer and have a nice day. :)

    p.s. I accept no liability for any damages caused by these instructions to your computer.

    STOP POST THE FORUM!!!!!!!! - YOU BLOCK THE THREAD!!!

    WHY DID I GET THIS MESSAGE. I'M NOT PART OF THIS GROUP

    To remove yourself from this running joke, reply to this message with REMOVE in the subject.

    Blah blah blah am I removed yet?

    Don't you realize that by quoting this message, you are replying to the whole forum?!

    TL:DR

    No quack

    FYI

    This chat is too slow.

    I would like to ask all of you not to quote the entire post you are replying to, because it floods the screen. If you do need to quote, please put your lines before the quoted content. Thank you.

    ( I am already considering unsubscribing because I am getting tired of all the scrolling. )

    javascript:void( /* nuke nested quotes */
      document.body.appendChild(document.createElement("style")).
      innerHTML="blockquote blockquote{display:none}"
    )

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