# Well, isn't this SPIFFY? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 25, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482 "2001-10-25T05:32:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/1 "2001-10-25T05:32:11Z")
The email list I work for has a pretty basic system. If you send in a request, it sends an error message to the person who made the request and cc’s it to me. This is all well and good unless the person has a fucking auto-reply which they send to the email system which generates and error which receives an auto-reply which generates an error… And there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Nothing quite like getting 300 emails in an hour from the same person. By 9 tomorrow morning I’m sure I’ll have gotten several thousand. I swear I’m going to hunt down this guy and flail him to death with the broken and dusty components of our email server. No, let’s revise this. Bucko, I will find every single person that cares about your whereabouts enough that they want to know where you are. I will then rally every single other person on the planet to email you a few hundred times just so you know how many people simply do not care about where you are. Then amidst much feasting and dancing I will roast your testicles over a bonfire while explaining that auto replies are not necessary, as it is quite easy to email people who need to know where you are and inform them of your absence. In short, fuck off and die, you server-crashing rat bastard. ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/2 "2001-10-25T05:40:30Z")
Nothing to add except that I _love_ the word spiffy, and believe it’s not used enough in everyday conversation. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/3 "2001-10-25T06:02:19Z")
Um…why not just unsubscribe them from the list until you can communicate the problem to them? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/4 "2001-10-25T06:03:45Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/5 "2001-10-25T06:49:47Z")
Auto reply is one of the dumbest things in the world. I don’t care if you’re out of the office today. I still want you to have the info I sent you. 'Kay? ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/6 "2001-10-25T14:20:27Z")
1,028 and counting. Fucking error messages. On the bright side, I finally got through to my boss and he’s going to block the address using the root command, so at least there won’t be any more. My, but that was a pathetic rant. ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/7 "2001-10-25T14:41:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andygirl \* > \*\*If you send in a request, it sends an error message to the person who made the request and cc’s it to me. > > This is all well and good unless the person has a fucking auto-reply which they send to the email system which generates and error which receives an auto-reply which generates an error… > > \*\* Huh?!? 😕 Whatever. Getting over 1000 e-mails from the same person automatically I understand. Quite annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/8 "2001-10-25T14:53:14Z")
Wait until he’s back from wherever and turns off his auto reply, then start forwarding them all back to him. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/9 "2001-10-25T15:16:03Z")
To try and explain it to Spritle: Person A has subscribed to a group-list. What that means is that people can send a single e-mail to the list, and the list _automatically_ sends that same e-mail out to every individual on that list. Person A has also turned on their “auto-reply” function with an out-of-the-office message. Any mail that is sent to them _automatically_ generates a “Sorry! Not in today!” message. So. Person B sends a message to the list. The list takes that message and distributes it to everyone on that list, including Person A. Person A’s e-mail service says, “Ooh! Incoming mail! Better send the auto-reply!”. Person A’s e-mail generates a “not in the office” message and sends it to… the list, since it’s set to automatically reply to the sender. The list takes that message and distributes it to everyone on that list, including Person A. Person A’s e-mail receives the new message and auto-replies to the list that Person A is out of the office. The list takes that message and distributes it to everyone on that list, including Person A. Person A’s e-mail receives the new message and auto-replies to the list that Person A is out of the office. The list takes that message and distributes it to everyone on that list, including Person A. Person A’s e-mail receives the new message and auto-replies to the list that Person A is out of the office. The list takes that message and distributes it to everyone on that list, including Person A. Person A’s e-mail receives the new message and auto-replies to the list that Person A is out of the office. Ad infinitum. ---
**Author:** ![toshirodragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@toshirodragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toshirodragon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/10 "2001-10-25T15:50:19Z")
OH SHIT! andygirl I feel your pain… I would string him up as well. Had something similiar happen with a list I was on… some idiot opened a virus that sends to everyone in your address book… including everyone on the list I dont know what the final count was by the time the freakout was calmed but for TWO straight hours all I did was delete “What the fuck is going on” letters. Yes andygirl you have my sympathy and my bow arm if necessary. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/11 "2001-10-25T15:53:06Z")
got it! Thanks, John!! What a bitch! If I (hypothetically) have this “auto-reply” thingie turned on, can I set it such that it will only auto-reply to specific types of addresses? Kinda like that magic used by spam filters? If there are more than, say, 25 people in the address line, the auto-response won’t send an “out of the office” message? Just a thought. I’ll tell the boys at MicroSoft to get right on it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/12 "2001-10-25T15:57:52Z")
John, thank you for that much more coherent explanation. Fortunately, this loop didn’t make it to the lists. It was in the course of trying to subscribe that he recieved the error that generated the loop. On the bright side, he got just as much email as I did. Perhaps that’ll be a hit in the head with the Clue Stick. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/13 "2001-10-25T16:13:29Z")
I like to think of it as a battle of wills between two computer programs. “I am the e-mail system and I only go East.” “Yes, well I am the auto-replier and I only go West.” ---
**Author:** ![CyberHippy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@CyberHippy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyberHippy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/14 "2001-10-25T17:52:23Z")
Last year, I finally got fed up with people opening attachments and releasing virii in my network (thank you, daily backup!) so I found a router/email server that includes virus-scanning software. This has worked wonders, I no longer spend X hours/month re-building infected machines, as the virus-scanner just quarantines them and sends me a message. All was wonderful in the Universe, until that damn SirCam worm infected some machine that had one of our email addresses in their Outlook, and ever since then (three months and counting) I have been receiving between 300 and 1000 “quarantine” messages a day! I have, many times, searched for and sent letters to anyone who could possibly be in charge of the email account that is doing this, and yet every morning I start up and download hundreds of warnings!!! After a while I also started getting multitudes of “mailbox is full” messages (the scanner also sends a message to the sender, informing them of their infection) so I had to add them to my email Rules to keep them from cluttering up my Inbox. I’ve had to purge the “quarantine” folder on the router twice now, as they keep filling up the damn 5Gig hard drive… ::sigh:: There’s 783 of the damn messages in my “quarantine” folder this morning. Welcome to my life… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-isnt-this-spiffy/89482/15 "2001-10-26T00:44:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andygirl \* > \*\*On the bright side, he got just as much email as I did. Perhaps that’ll be a hit in the head with the Clue Stick. \*\* 20 bucks says he gets mad at _you_ for cluttering up _his_ inbox.