... a 1,300 person listserv. A recipient calls to ask why they haven't been receiving posts from the listserv, so rather than (a) asking the friendly administrator who has access to all the logs for past year, or (b) actually checking to see if the user is on the list, they choose option (c). Option (c) doesn't make any sense:
Assume that Person A normally posts to the listserv, but is out sick. Normally, Person B posts in A's stead. This time, Person C has been charged with the job. Now, Person C has been posting to the listserv for over a week, and Person B (as well as the friendly admin) has received the mail from the listserv just fine. So, option (c) is to assume that if Person C posts, Something Bad Happens - and it's a fluke that Person B, Person C and the Friendly Admin have all been receiving the mail. So, Person C sends out a test message (received by Friendly Admin and Persons B & C). Person C sends it again (again, received fine). Person B sends a forwarded copy of Person C's email, just to find out if Person C Has Bad Things Happening. Person C then decides to send out all 7 of the last week's mailings again, just in case (presumably because Nothing Bad Is Happening).
The funny thing is, for every one of these posts, as well as the 7 previous daily postings, the log file reads:
So now everyone has 3 test messages, and two copies of every message from the last week, for a total of 23,681 message deliveries in 30 minutes.
Mood: contemplative
Music: None
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