The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[Steve Shipway <address@concealed>]

We have a Webdropoff system here that uses one-time tickets under certain 
circumstances; we have also seen this sort of behaviour from some 
anti-malware plugins, and also from GMail in a lot of cases (it seems to have 
a some sort of pre-download code on embedded links).  It took a long time to 
track down the root cause as our users have such a diverse variety of mail 
clients.

This is an issue, and the only way I can see around it is to make the 
one-time tickets a two-step process -- 
1. click on the one-time link
2. Presented with a single page with two buttons -- 'really approve it' or 
'cancel'
3. If you click a button, the ticket is removed

This would work with the anti-malware products without too much issue, though 
it means a bit more hassle on the Sympa front.

While it is annoying to have to work around the behaviour of other software 
that might not always operate in a way we'd prefer, it is sadly necessary if 
we want to be compatible with as much as possible.  Particularly for 
something like email lists, it is necessary to cover as many possibilities as 
we can, even those which might break established standards or operate in a 
way we might find unintuitive.  If I had to go to may manager and say "we 
can't support these clients any more because they don't operate the way I 
want them to" I'd just be told to start looking for a new mailing list 
software package...

Steve

Steve Shipway
University of Auckland ITS
UNIX Systems Design Lead
address@concealed
Ph: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86487