Automatically handle subscribe/unsubscribe/bounced emails

[chadmg]

Is there any way to automatically handle subscribe/unsubscribe/bounced emails, without resorting to an extraneous program? Is there a way to write a script to handle these emails?

Edit: Oops, this may not be the best place for this question, although it does apply to forums.

[rogerd]

This is a HUGE problem with forums, particularly these days. In their push to cut spam, some major ISPs are nailing mailers for excessive bounces to the same address. So, if your notification emails just get trashed if they bounce, you could be on the way to getting your mail server IP banned.

It's technically possible to handle bounces - I use Lyris for some mailing lists, and it has built-in bounce handling to stop mailings to bad addresses.

[the_nerd]

I was wandering if there is something like a verification service: instead of sending the email and than handling the "fall out" - couldn't I check if they are valid and the other service would be willing to accept my mail? The rest then could be flagged as invalid.

nerd

[rogerd]

Well, the verification process would be ok for a short period... but the problem is e-mail addresses go bad continuously. Sometimes it's a temporary issue (mailbox full, server problem), sometimes permanent (mailbox closed).