I thought I'd start using the prefix feature. This is where I can supposedly specify that a prefix be used on any newly generated alias (after I defined the prefix) for the alias to be valid and generated by SG. Nope, instead all e-mails sent to an alias with the prefix get eaten so it works in reverse: rather than require a prefix to define the alias, a non-blank prefix results in all prefixed aliases getting eaten (so the alias doesn't get created and all e-mails to it are discarded).
Before I enabled the prefix option (which is blank by default so no prefix is required for new aliases), an example alias e-mail address give to a sender might look like:
{word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net
If an e-mail get sent to that alias, it remains viable until its threshold count gets decremented to zero even after I later define a non-blank prefix. That is, once defined the alias is usable until it counts down to zero. Then I defined a non-blank prefix which was:
Prefix: LH
(just 2 characters)
I then sent an e-mail to the following alias:
lh.{word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net
Instead of SG creating the new alias and forwarding the e-mail through it, SG ate the e-mail that used a properly prefixed alias. The eaten log shows all e-mails sent to the LH-prefixed alias were getting eaten.
Although characters in an e-mail address are supposed to be case insensitive, I changed the prefix setting in SG account to lowercase, as in:
prefix: lh
I then resent the test e-mail to lh.{word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net but it still got eaten. With a non-blank prefix setting, any e-mails sent to an alias with that prefix were getting eaten by SG (so they never got delivered).
So I gave up on using the prefix feature and set it to a blank value (the only way to disable it). E-mails sent to {word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net work just fine to get delivered through the non-prefixed alias.
The description of the prefix feature says the syntax is {prefix}.{alias}; that is, the prefix is followed by a . (dot) character and not just prepended onto the first word in the alias.
{prefix}.{word}.{count}.{sgacct} is shown as correct
{prefix}{word}.{count}.{sgacct} is not shown as proper use
I figured it would be useful to prevent template spamming of my aliases. Someone using an old alias of {oldprefix}.{word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net could just slap in any word to get their spam through a new alias. If I zeroed out the old alias (to disable any more spam getting through it) and later changed the prefix to a new value then the spammer sending to {oldprefix}.{anywordtheywant}.{mysgacct)@xoxy.net would get blocked (eaten) because the old alias is dead, a new prefix is defined, and now they'd have to use something like {newprefix}.{word}.{mysgacct}@xoxy.net but it would take awhile before they lucked upon my new prefix.
Does the prefix feature work?