Topic: Message Delivery Options

What is bouncing? (aka Help! I stopped receiving list mail!)

Q. What the heck is bouncing?

A. It's the email equivalent of a telephone busy signal (soft bounce) or a "this number has been disconnected" message (hard bounce) for a telephone number.

Soft bounces (busy signal) happen when your email box fills up and new mail gets returned with a "mailbox full" message.

Hard bounces (number disconnected) happen when you cancel your email address or change ISPs. Messages to the old email address will get returned with a "user unknown" type of message. Also, some free email services like Yahoo and Hotmail will deactivate an email address if you haven't logged in to their service within some time period and then you'll see "account deactivated" type of messages, these are also hard bounces.

When these bounces are received by the list interface, Yahoogroups, Smartgroups, Topica, Mailman, etc., the list interface may set you to bouncing status and stop sending you list mail.

At Yahoogroups, you can check your bounce history by going to your MyGroups page and clicking on Email Preferences, then clicking on Bounce History for your email address. If you're in bouncing status, you can also send yourself a Reactivation Request from that page to get restored to normal status again.

If the list is hosted elsewhere, check with the listowner to see how you can start getting list mail again, it works differently at each list service.

Last updated on March 27, 2004 12:25 PM
Comments

I am bouncing and I do not have a reativation message to reactivate my mail.

Posted by: Donna at July 2, 2004 09:07 AM

Donna: You should be able to request re-activation at the appropriate website.

Question: Can I reactivate a bouncing account purely by email or must I visit the website?

Posted by: PRAR at July 25, 2004 04:32 PM

Depends on the list service you're using. For Yahoogroups, you have to visit the website (and have a Yahoo ID linked to your email address) to click on the button to get a reactivation request sent to you. Or you must ask a listowner of a list you belong to to go to their bouncing list and click on the reactivation request button.

At Topica, only a listowner can reactivate a bouncing list member, thru the Topica website.

For lists run on Mailman, the list member has to visit the list website to change from NoMail to individual emails or digest.

Posted by: texas critter at July 25, 2004 08:36 PM
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