Date: Tue, 30 Aug 94 19:18:08 EDT
From: peprbv AT cfa0 DOT harvard DOT edu (Bob Babcock)
To: OKRA AT max DOT tiac DOT net
Cc: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Re: mail lag
Reply-To: babcock AT cfa DOT harvard DOT edu

>   I'm on two mailing lists.  One of them, when I post, it shows up a few 
> seconds later.  This one takes a long time.  Why?

Have you ever seen a mail loop?  Somehow an address on the list becomes
invalid.  Mail to that address bounces, but the mailer bouncing it doesn't
send it back in a format that the sender recognizes as rejected mail.  So,
the bounce gets sent to the entire list, including the bad address which
bounces it again...  If the list delays sending things out, there's some hope
that somebody with the power to break the loop will notice before things get
too bad.  (I've seen loops hit ~100 copies.)  I don't know if this list has a
deliberate delay for this reason, but there are reasons for not wanting
instant response.  A more mundane explanation could be aslow or overloaded
link or machine somewhere along the path.