Apple's Mailing List Blunder

Emails from the Apple's Weekly-kbase-changes flooded my inbox, containing not the updates I was used to receiving, but confused emails from Apple subscribers.


Re: Confirm Emails

I was surprised today, seeing that I got about 30 emails in my mailbox. Curious who emailed all of these, I checked it out.

As it turns out, they were a collection of messages, all with the same subject: "Re: Confirm." They were all from people on Apple's Weekly-kbase-changes mailing list, to which I have a subscription.

Apple's weekly-kbase-changes emails contain some of the recent changes in, well, their knowledge base changes. At the bottom of each email from Apple, it states that "Do not post admin request to the list. They will be ignored." Apparently, someone ignored the request and did reply. This led to further replies, and somehow, was sent to everyone in the Apple's mailing list.

By the end of the day, I wasn't receiving any of those email, but like I said, I received about 30 of them. Here's some of the lines in the email:

“What is with all these confirm emails?” John

“I was wondering the same thing.” Robert

“I am curious as well.” Richard

“Beats me, Apple mail list got hacked I guess.” Kerry

“I echo the same question. I think it has something to do with KBase updates … or lack thereof.” Steve

“I have received two such messages, and am at a loss to know why.” Adair

“Hmm. I think that I didn’t realize this was a public list, that anyone could post to, and a couple of folks were trying to confirm subscriptions, perhaps. My bad? I guess so. Didn’t mean to set off a storm, haha.” John

“SPAM. All on this list - PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY REPLIES TO THE GROUP.” Scott

“Gentlemen: I got a notice regarding the weekly kbase changes. I assume that I am being sent this email to see if I wish to continue. The answer is yes I enjoy the articles very much.” Jim

“Please make the changes to prevent this from happening!!!” Greg

“Be interesting to know how many thousands around the world are receiving these emails.” Tim

“Confirm what? Please advise.” Liu

“JUST STOP REPLYING!!!” David

“Sorry guys, I do not have a clue what is going on…it feels like a Microsoft-Gates thing.” Robert

“Will you please all stop replying. Let the situation get resolved and leave it alone. Thank you.” Shane, Mac Genius

Not a big deal. I just thought that you might want to know.

P.S. Please do not confirm.