Re: "proving" a user received an email (good gosh)

From: Christopher Browne (cbbrowne@acm.org)
Date: 06/24/02 

From: Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org>
Date: 24 Jun 2002 18:17:13 GMT

Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw when davidsen@tmr.com (bill davidsen) would write:
> In article <188cd7b2.0206232245.47c44a28@posting.google.com>,
> gaius.petronius <rut@linuxmail.org> wrote:
> | "proving" a user received an email (good gosh)
> |
> | boss calls me in
> | manager X is a liar, says he never received this damn email.
> |
> | i check the logs
>
> Which don't seem to indicate he did. They prove an email was sent, and
> if the sender kept a copy he can show what was in it. But unless it was
> sent "return receipt requested" that's where it ends.
>
> B-i-g gap in the times.

It would seem a sensible idea to took at the mail server for _all_ the
messages sent to Mr John Bigboote for some extended period of time,
and reconcile them with what the POP server served up.

It might also be worth doing a similar sort of reconciliation for
several other accounts, particularly:
 - Accounts of those that work with John Bigboote, and who
   might have been cc'ed the message of interest;

 - Accounts of those that are in charge.

If you can show that the mail is getting through to the bigger bosses,
that can give _them_ the confidence level they need to do the Right
Thing about Mendacious_Manager. :-)

"See? The message Mendacious_Manager claims got lost was cc'ed to
three other people, and they received it _fine_."

And... "Mr John Parker, could you open up your mailbox? ("Sure,
mon!") The sendmail stats for jparker@yoyodyne.com are that there
were 45 messages sent over the last 3 days: 15, 14, and 16. The POP3
server indicated that you downloaded 7, 4, 8, 9, 3, and 14 messages at
different times. And looking at your computer system, we see that
there are 5 in the inbox, 8 in the "read" folder, and 32 in the
"deleted" folder. That all adds up nicely. Clearly your system is
working _fine_. We have to wonder why Mr John Bigboote hasn't been
seeing all his mail..." 

-- 
(reverse (concatenate 'string "moc.enworbbc@" "enworbbc"))
http://www3.sympatico.ca/cbbrowne/finances.html
I have this nagging fear that everyone is out to make me paranoid.

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