Re: AOL Blocking of this list

From: Trevor Johnson <bpfsa_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed 20 Aug 2003 10:31:58 -0500

Cliff Kurtzman asks:
> AOL's mail system seems to be refusing
> to accept the Lyris messages..... I'm
> fairly certain that the problem is due
> to AOL blocking instead. Does anyone
> have any ideas of how to deal with
> the situation?
 
AOL's web site contains information about its email
delivery/acceptance standards and policies. They cover
technical standards, how to apply for whitelisting,
and more. An article discussing these AOL issues,
along with links to the relevants pages on the AOL web
site, can be found at:
http://ezine-tips.com/articles/format/20030523.shtml
 
I sympathise with your problem, Cliff. One of my
mailing lists has never, even from the first issue,
made it through to any AOL subscriber. Despite their
stated policies re whitelisting, etc, I've written to
them and never even received ANY form of a reply - not
even a rejection, must less a favourable reply.
Accordingly, 17% of my subscribers never see the
newsletter to which they have knowingly and
voluntarily subscribed.

Still, I suggest you read that above article and the
linked AOL pages, and play their game. Hopefully,
you'll have better luck with corresponding with them
that I have thus far.
 
AOL have recently claimed that "spam" accounts for 80%
of incoming email, thus their tough blocking measures.
 
No-one is more ardently opposed to spam than me.
However, AOL's claim is a bit hard to swallow. Is
there a logical reason why AOL is more spam-prone than
other major ISPs? The other majors put the spam level
at only half the AOL rate - 40% of incoming mail.

That suggests a terrible lot of *legitimate* email
being blocked by AOL, to the disadvantage of their
customers. What is AOL's? motive for blocking so much
legitimate email? They surely couldn't be cost cutting
by saving on bandwidth, could they?

Trevor Johnson
Scrabble Bonus Word Techniques.
http://www.bonuswords.com




Received on Wed Aug 20 2003 - 10:31:58 CDT