reception and reply to

["Mike Curley" <curley@CYPHER.TURBONET.COM>]

Bill Moore at First Step Research (home of moscow.com) provided answers to 
questions posed yesterday about our messages.

1.  replies to messages may arrive before the original message itself because 
our individual ISP's may not be able to receive the original when it is first 
"sent."  Then the message is "spooled" and in essence held for redelivery every 
30 minutes until it is actually received by each individual ISP to which it is 
being sent (the turbonets, aols, hotmails, etc. of the virtual world).
	meanwhile a list member who has received the mail (and moscow.com members will 
receive it without delay usually since it is coming FROM moscow.com) may send a 
reply to the original that is delivered on the first try to my or your ISP, so 
we actually get it first.  Even then, the spooled message may not come through 
on the next 30 minute cycle because my ISP may be busy again, especially during 
peak times of usage.

2.  the reply to problem of receiving a reply to your post both as a V2020 
member and as the original author can be solved, it has been noted, by the 
having the responder delete the author's individual address in the "reply to."  
Bill noted it could be solved by changing the software configuration, but to do 
so would degrade significantly the identification procedures that show who is 
sending the original--and thus, a certain amount of accountability.  So, 
perhaps the best answer is for all of us to be aware of the duplication issue 
and do our best to delete the original author's address in the reply to and to 
simply delete the second message if one slips through to us.

By the way, some list members may not know that FSR provides this list as a 
public service without charge to any of us, including of course those of us who 
are not moscow.com customers.  And it doesn't just maintain itself, there is a 
good bit of work that goes into keeping things running smoothly every week and 
month.  Thanks Bill, and the others at FSR for your help and for giving us the 
opportunity to talk with one another about issues that are important to the 
community (and maybe a few that aren't).

mike curley