A short while ago AOL announced they had instituted great new spam filters.
Immediately some of my friends with AOL addresses stopped getting the mail from a mailing list we all belong to.
Several of them have spent hours with AOL customer service reps who haven’t been able to offer an explanation or solution.
For example, one rep suggested the problem was that all mail from “chiswick.iam.org.uk” was being blocked. However, the digest version of the mail list, which is sent by exactly the same route, goes through fine, so this cannot be true.
The mail list is an ordinary mail list, for fannish discussion of an old SF series. As in, maybe a dozen or two relatively short posts every day. Posts occasionally might include a stray four letter word, but I can’t imagine that that rises to the level of getting all the mail killed.
Does anyone have any information on what AOL is using to trigger the spam designation, or how we can avoid the problem?
Some of the members have now switched to the digest version, but they’d really rather get it message-by-message if at all possible.
While AOL has its supporters and detractors on the SDMB, the question you are asking borders on the no-no list for this board.
AOL has set up its own spam system. A discussion here on how to circumvent it, even if it appears to be for “legitmate” reasons, is seriously frowned upon by the MODS.
I’m sorry – I didn’t realize this question is against the rules. If the Mods want to close it, I promise not to rant or whine in the Pit.
For the record, I wasn’t looking for ways outside mailers could circumvent the system (I am not a spammer! I loathe spammers!) but ways the AOL members could tell AOL NOT to “protect them” from the list messages.
Which it looks like Q.E.D. has come up with. I will ask the savviest of my AOL friends about that allow list – it sounds like that would be a good solution, if it works. (I’ve never had an AOL account myself, so I don’t know anything about their inner workings.
It’s just so aggravating. I used to be the owner of this list, so members keep emailing me to see what I can do about it, and so for the answer is nothing.
Well, not nothing: I’ve been telling people to change their email address to anything other than AOL.
I’ve run into this with e-mail notifications from a website/messageboard. The problem seems to stem from the dynamic IP of the site. Apparently dynamic IPs tend to be a source for spam senders and the guess is that AOL is blocking the dynamic IP mail.
While not a solution, this does point us towards the reason for the blocked emails.
Duckster
I don’t see any way the question here can be thought of as anything wrong.
StarvingButStrong is asking how he should send legitimate email to people on AOL. The people with AOL accounts want to receive the mail. From the OP people have been working with AOL on the problem and there is no mention that AOL thinks that what they are doing is wrong.
I will ask the savviest of my AOL friends about that allow list – it sounds like that would be a good solution, if it works. (I’ve never had an AOL account myself, so I don’t know anything about their inner workings.