Re: [apps-discuss] draft-santos-smtpgrey-02: SMTP Service Extension for Greylisting Operations

[Ned Freed <[e-mail]>]

> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Ned Freed <[e-mail]> wrote:

> > And finally, we have to take the least astonishment principle into
> > account. For
> > whatever reason some sites obsess over the predictability of message retry
> > intervals: Any time they see what they regard as unusual behavior in this
> > regard, they get very excited and demand an analysis be done. Our support
> > people then have to waste time digging in to what invariably turns out to
> > be
> > have a perfectly reasonable explanation: a queue backlog, an unresponsive
> > destination, bad configuration setting, etc. etc.
> >

> So is it your view that undertaking standardization work here would help
> you with this pain point (predictable retries), or make it worse (something
> new for everyone to understand)?

My point was that respecting retry values intrduces yet another variable
that support will have to deal with.

I don't think this is an argument for or against standardization, however. The
overarching goal of improving timely delivery of mail trumps the cost of
dealing with the obsessions some sites have. IMO this protocol needs to be
assessed almost entirely on the basis of whether or not it improves the
situation surrounding greylisting.

> If you can't tell, I'm fishing for some answers to the predictable "Should
> APPSAWG consider taking on this work?" question.

I think taking it on is a good idea. Whether or not it turns into a
standard depends on how the discussion goes.

And while I agree that our time is valuable and should not be wasted, I'm not
sure I'd go as far as to say that WGs should only ever take on work when the
production of a standard at the end is practically guaranteed. Sometimes
crippling problems only emerge after close scrutiny. Mind you, email
is sufficiently mature and we have sufficient experience with greylisting
that such an outcome is unlikely here. But we've been surprised before.

				Ned