posting speed

[Michael Hipp]

> From: "David Bandel" <david.bandel at gmail.com>
> 
> So many questions, so little time:
> 
> Let's see, my read of the RFCs is that e-mail is "best effort", not least 
> delay.
> 
> The mail server picks ups the mail and has a list.  So as not to slow
> down other services unnecessarily (e-mail is _not_ interactive in case
> you hadn noticed), the list is tagged as "bulk mail" and processes
> e-mails when it is not busy doing other more important tasks.
> 
> Now, I'd have to look inside the mailman list itself, but mailman puts
> names in the order they signed up for service.  So newer list members
> are nearer the bottom.
> 
> To get around spam controls, mails are sent out a few at a time from
> the top of the list to the bottom.  Any requeues (because of grey
> listing, remote server non-availability, etc.), get serviced at
> intervals (will check, but that could be 15, 30, or 60 minutes).
> 
> So yes, it could take a while for e-mails to get out to some of you.
> Since Lonnie is in the server, he often sends out replies to e-mails
> before I even see the question  (at my gmail account).  So sometimes
> it looks like Lonnie has responded before the question was asked.
> 
> But the mail server never rests, and just keeps chugging along.  In
> fact, two weeks ago it moved to a new 3.2GHz system w/ fast 160Gb SATA
> drives and is churning out the mail faster than before.
> 
> If you want interactive, please check out the IRC channel.  Those of
> us with lives who can only browse the mail 2-3 times a day don't even
> notice a 30 or 60 minute delay.

David, thanks for taking the time to post this explanation. And I'm sorry for being a pain (complainer, whiner, troll, terrorist) but I just have a hard time buying it...

I'm on lots of lists. Many of them use Mailman and most of the time my replies end up in my inbox in the length of time it takes me to hit 'Get New Mail' twice. Generally less than a minute. Almost never more than five. I don't know how big this list is but some of those other lists are quite large and far more busy.

The fact that the RFC says "best effort" does not change the fact that this is the age of Internet and we use it because it is fast and efficient. And the fact that some people aren't bothered by the delays should not set policy for the rest of us.

Sometimes I post a question to this list when I'm stumped with a serious problem and hoping for an insightful answer from the very knowledgeable and helpful folk here. And that's usually after spending way too much time trying to wrestle an answer out of Google. I've frequently had my questions/answers not show up for hours.

Overall, it just makes the list less useful. Less friendly.

The question is: is there something that can be done about it? Without, of course, undue harm to whomever would have to make/maintain the changes.

Best regards,
Michael