autoresponder-like question

Sun, 03 Feb 2002 12:53:22 -0700

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Not a bad idea, George, except it turns out ...
ahem ... that the people who are having the most
difficulties not coincidentally ... cough cough
... run a very old and rickety program to access
their email.  They are slowly upgrading to
Outlook.  But their habitual way of accessing mail
is like the old CompuServe/AOL way where you'd
dial-up, grab your new mail, then disconnect.  I
tried a method that sends a link in an email, and
got buried in a blizzard of emails each week
saying "This method does not work for me!  Just
send as an attachment!".  Get the drift?  It's not
something I have any say over.  I'm simply trying
to reduce my overhead when the mailer these folks
use doesn't work right..

-David

> How about including a link to a web page: "If you
> need this resent, click here."  Then when they
> click on that link, it downloads the zip file for
> them as the link goes to the zip file in question.
> This is much simpler than what you are asking.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> George
>

"David P. Schwartz" wrote:
>
> I send out some reports attached to emails each
> week.  Invariably, a few people complain that
they
> can't open the attachment and they need me to
> re-send it.  It's really a major PITA!  I'm
> looking for some solution that can handle these
> sort of requests without administrative
> intervention on my part.
>
> Here's one idea I've got.  To put some meat on
the
> example, suppose I'm sending out a new recipe
each
> week in an email, and there's an attachment with

> some related stuff in a ZIP file.
>
> So, let's say there's an email address added to
> each distribution list that goes to a "bucket",
> eg., backuplist.recipe@thedomain.com (maybe a
> regular POP3 mailbox is fine).  Then, when
people
> can't read an attachment, they'd simply send a
> request to another email address (eg.,
> resend.recipe@thedomain.com) specifying the name

> of the desired recipe's file attachment (or
recipe
> name) in the subject header.
>
> At the other end, "something" would intercept
all
> emails addressed to a users matching the pattern

> "resend.*@thedomain.com" and search through the
> emails in the bucket (or mailbox) for one that
> contains the specified attachment.  If found, it

> would be sent out to the sender's email address.

> If not, an error mail would be sent back along
> with a list of all the files it DID find.
>
> A bonus feature would be that it checks the
> request to be sure that the sender's email
address
> is contained somewhere in the header of the mail

> containing the attachment.  That way, only
people
> who are on the distribution list could ask for
> files to be re-sent.
>
> Does anybody know of anything that behaves
> remotely similar to this?  Or that handles this
> problem in a different way?
>
> TIA!
> -David

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Not a bad idea, George, except it turns out ... ahem ... that the people
who are having the most difficulties not coincidentally ... cough cough
... run a very old and rickety program to access their email.&nbsp; They
are slowly upgrading to Outlook.&nbsp; But their habitual way of accessing
mail is like the old CompuServe/AOL way where you'd dial-up, grab your
new mail, then disconnect.&nbsp; I tried a method that sends a link in
an email, and got buried in a blizzard of emails each week saying "This
method does not work for me!&nbsp; Just send as an attachment!".&nbsp;
Get the drift?&nbsp; It's not something I have any say over.&nbsp; I'm
simply trying to reduce my overhead when the mailer these folks use doesn't
work right..
-David
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<pre>How about including a link to a web page: "If you
need this resent, click here."&nbsp; Then when they
click on that link, it downloads the zip file for&nbsp;
them as the link goes to the zip file in question.
This is much simpler than what you are asking.

Just a thought.

George</pre>
</blockquote>

"David P. Schwartz" wrote:
 >
 > I send out some reports attached to emails each
 > week.&nbsp; Invariably, a few people complain that they
 > can't open the attachment and they need me to
 > re-send it.&nbsp; It's really a major PITA!&nbsp; I'm
 > looking for some solution that can handle these
 > sort of requests without administrative
 > intervention on my part.
 >
 > Here's one idea I've got.&nbsp; To put some meat on the
 > example, suppose I'm sending out a new recipe each
 > week in an email, and there's an attachment with
 > some related stuff in a ZIP file.
 >
 > So, let's say there's an email address added to
 > each distribution list that goes to a "bucket",
 > eg., backuplist.recipe@thedomain.com (maybe a
 > regular POP3 mailbox is fine).&nbsp; Then, when people
 > can't read an attachment, they'd simply send a
 > request to another email address (eg.,
 > resend.recipe@thedomain.com) specifying the name
 > of the desired recipe's file attachment (or recipe
 > name) in the subject header.
 >
 > At the other end, "something" would intercept all
 > emails addressed to a users matching the pattern
 > "resend.*@thedomain.com" and search through the
 > emails in the bucket (or mailbox) for one that
 > contains the specified attachment.&nbsp; If found, it
 > would be sent out to the sender's email address.
 > If not, an error mail would be sent back along
 > with a list of all the files it DID find.
 >
 > A bonus feature would be that it checks the
 > request to be sure that the sender's email address
 > is contained somewhere in the header of the mail
 > containing the attachment.&nbsp; That way, only people
 > who are on the distribution list could ask for
 > files to be re-sent.
 >
 > Does anybody know of anything that behaves
 > remotely similar to this?&nbsp; Or that handles this
 > problem in a different way?
 >
 > TIA!
 > -David
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