Re: I am confused

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
> The message to which I am replying now was posted on Phys-L. But
> after posting this message I received this from the server:
>
>
> > Your message  is being returned to  you unprocessed because it
> > appears to have already been distributed to the PHYS-L  list. That
> > is, a message with identical text (but  possibly with different
> > mail headers) has  been posted to the list recently, either by you
> > or by someone else.

The "someone else" is the key phrase there.

The "someone" in question is a list subscriber who is
forwarding phys-l traffic back to phys-l.  Usually it
is straightforward to figure out who the culprit is by
analyzing the Received-from: headers of the bounce msg.

The problem is slightly exacerbated by the fact that
the listserv takes quite a while to distribute msgs
to all recipients, and it is quite possible that the
culprit's copy will get through and generate a bounce
msg before the original author receives a copy of the
original msg ... in which case it is not obvious that
the original msg has been accepted.

This situation would be less confusing if the listserv
generated a more informative bounce msg ... for example
by offering a comparison of the Received-from: headers
in the original and the copy.