I just wrote a Super Long Post about my e-mail experience this week.
I deleted it.
I’m just going to give you the jist of it here, which is why I was writing in the first place.
When you send emails to addresses that no longer exist (something that you do unwittingly, of course), the mailing system tries (apparently) to make the address work for awhile. While it is doing this, it sends you an email with this title: Delivery Status Notification (Delay).
This is nice. It’s just keeping you posted, letting you know it’s trying, informing you that, yes, there’s been a Slight Delay.
But after a day or two, the mailing system gives it over. It capitulates to impossibility. And I think the system wants to be sure that you have No Doubts Whatsoever that the function you have asked it to perform is Impossible. It doesn’t want you to think that you should wait just a little longer, or try again later or, really, maintain Any Hope At All. So it sends you an email with this title: Delivery Status Notification (Failure).
And on the inside: “Delivery to the following recipient has failed permanently: ” and then the recipient’s address. Failed Permanently. Failed Permanently.
That’s what it says.
Just in case you didn’t know. Or if, maybe, you were holding out some hope there. Just don’t.
