Date: 11/3/26 5:55 am From: Ernest Warren Buford <ebuford...> Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] "Probe Failure for VTBIRD" message question
Keep Calm and Carry On. As the message indicates, Listserv had some trouble delivering email to your address. I don't know precisely why, but this time it seems to have involved anyone with a Gmail address (as I was notified that 160+ Gmail addresses were being monitored). Apparently, the message got through despite the trouble, and I haven't noticed continued notifications about Gmail addresses, so this problem appears to have been solved.
The Listserv server will send out these probes when there are email delivery issues that raise questions about what might be wrong on the receiving end, and email addresses in question are monitored in attempts to figure out if continued delivery is possible. Email addresses sometimes get dropped from the list if delivery problems persist, as several subscribers learned in the last year or two.
These delivery problems are often related to ongoing efforts to secure email accounts against spam, phishing attempts, and other nefarious internet traffic. Listserv often looks like a bad actor to service providers because it is bulk-mailing messages in a way that looks a lot like methods used by spammers. Consequently, subscribers to email lists are often collateral damage in the battle between spammers and email service providers. Listserv handles a lot of things itself, and the people who manage Listserv at UVM sometimes must act when they notice severe or persistent problems. Other times, there is not much that the system administrators can do because the software itself is no longer able to send messages in a way that comports with the latest spam countermeasures that have been deployed by email service providers.
If you ever suspect that you aren't getting VTBIRD messages, you can always go to list.uvm.edu, as Cherrie suggests, where you can look at recent (or older) messages, re-subscribe to the list (if you've been dropped for some reason), change your delivery settings, etc.
