Automatic Reply Messages

Automatic "out of office" or "vacation" messages are a nuisance for the other members of any web-based discussion forum. The IRB Forum prevents these messages from being distributed to the entire list through automatically filtering and then discarding these messages before they are reviewed by the moderator, or by the moderator deleting these messages during the approval process so that they are not distributed to the entire list. However, the default settings of the e-mail program direct any reply message back to the individual posting the original message. As a result, the person submitting a message to The IRB Forum will receive any and all automatic messages generated in reply to a message posted through The IRB Forum. These messages are sent individually to the sender and not through The IRB Forum. As there are thousands of members of The IRB Forum, the widespread use of automatic reply messages can flood a member's e-mail address with unwanted messages. The only way that The IRB Forum can prevent this is to suspend a user's e-mail delivery, or remove a user from the list altogether. However, this will only prevent a future automatic message from a single user's e-mail address. For this reason, all members should suspend their own e-mail delivery prior to activating an automatic reply message.

As automatic reply messages are sent to individual users and may not be seen by The IRB Forum administrator, members are encouraged to forward such messages to The IRB Forum administrator. Members sending automatic reply messages will have their e-mail delivery suspended, or will be removed from the list altogether.

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