On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 10:58 AM, Dave Wade wrote:

...as far as I can tell it has around 10 million customers….

In the group I moderate (>2100 Subscribers) 182 have btinternet.com addresses and a further 8 have btconnect.com one.

Dave w also wrote: … I suspect you have as much chance of getting it fixed as you have of getting Schrodinger’s cat to the moon dead and alive….

I suspect that is certainly true if we have to go via the normal "call centre" route. :(  In this case Peter has gone via the "BT Community" from which the matter has (reportedly) been escalated.

The odd thing is that if a (btinternet) email is sent to a Groups.io "+" address from an email client then the + and what follows up to the @ is stripped off and the email is misrouted to the Topics page*. If, however, the same email is sent from BT Mail's web UI then it is routed correctly to whatever is after the +. I don't know if similar mishaps arise if the originating address is btconnect; I know of one Subscriber who has such an address so I might ask him if he could try a test message or two.

* If the Sub happens to be unmoderated then of course the message appears immediately.

Chris

On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 04:58 AM, Dave Wade wrote:

it’s the biggest UK mail provider, and as far as I can tell it has around 10 million customers

I would think a provider of that size would follow the RFCs.

Duane

On Fri, Sep 20, 2019 at 07:41 AM, Peter Martinez wrote:

So lets switch from a + to a dot.

I was involved in some of the original investigation into this phenomenon, but I genuinely believe that changing the format of Groups.io email addresses is not the way to go, at least for the moment.

While it would probably be easy for Mark to implement any such change, that change would impact on any / all Groups.io Subscribers who have or may have the current address format in their contacts lists, and I do not see that as acceptable unless it really cannot be avoided, and in my view it is far too early so say that such a change is unavoidable. Furthermore, such a change would (IMHO) be a violation of the Principle of Least Astonishment.

Having said that, although the problem is not one of Mark's creation he might be better placed than any one of us to tackle Synchronoss with the aim of getting that organisation to ensure that their traffic - handling is compliant with the agreed standard.

To continue the motoring analogy, driving around the pothole is all very well as a short - term fix, but does nothing to address the fact that the pothole shouldn't be there is the first place. Circumvent the pothole and before long there will be a second pothole to navigate, and then a third and so on. In other words an unaddressed problem is more likely to spread; it certainly won't repair itself.

What happens when the next service - provider non - compliance arises? Find another work - around?

Mark; if by any chance you are willing to tackle BT / Synchronoss about this incorrect handling of traffic please let us know and one of us can post the exact details of when this problem arises and when it does not, because the current understanding is that it affects end users who are customers of a single (UK) Mail Service Provider, but even then under a single set of circumstances, albeit a very common set.

As Peter has noted previously there is reason to believe (hope!) that some details are working their way through to that MSP (BT) but with no certainty of a satisfactory outcome.

Chris

This morning, I tried to respond to a request for the best email discussion group provider with the address of Groups.io. It lead to much frustration. Every time I tried to go to a general page, I was reverted to my own list of groups. Even with a Google search the only page I could access was my own list of groups. I needed a link that would give them a description and list of features. This was a referral to a list of several hundred people each of whom probably has connections to at least three other Yahoo or Google groups.
Somehow I finally found the features page, but it took work.
Clicking on the logo on my list of groups would normally go to a home page with links to a home page. But the logo is also a link that returns me to my list of groups.
I think this is a major problem in the area of referring people who are likely to start new groups.
Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
TakomaDC@Groups.io
"Neighbors Talking to Neighbors”
Takoma Park DC and MD

On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 08:09 AM, Peter Martinez wrote:

I don't think it is safe to continue using a + in the email command

If that's true, then it's not "safe" to use any punctuation in the local part.  Per RFC 2821, they should all be treated the same.

Duane