[Tandy] Admin Post - Please Read

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

This is from Tim Miller, who handles most of the operation of QTH.NET mail for
owner Alan Waller, K3TKJ. It affects AOL users only. 	
	
Please do NOT discuss this on this list! If you have comments, send them to Tim,
not I. You can reach him at:	
	
listowner at mailman.qth.net	
	
Over the last year or so our system has been periodically blocked from sending
mail into the AOL system.  A month ago, I finally made arrangements with them to
be white listed and put an end to this once and for all.  To be white listed by
them I had to agree to receive any and all complaints logged by their users
about mail being sent from our system (we don't send spam, no problem).

While this seemed easy, I found that AOL provides their users a button on their
interface that says something to the effect that "this message is spam", and
when they highlight a message and push it, we get a "complaint" logged against
us and mailed to us.  No one at AOL reads this stuff, but they keep track of
them and after we reach a certain percentage of the mail we send vs how many
complaints we get, they block our entire system.  I've also found that the spam
button is next to the delete button, and a clueless user MIGHT use it to delete
messages.  Here in lies the problem.

I am getting plenty of these "complaints" and since AOL does not tell me who is
complaining (apparently a privacy issue), it's near impossible to find out who
they are and remove them from the system.

So, I'm asking all list owners to post a message to all of your lists reminding
AOL people not to use the "spam" button as a delete button and if they are
subscribed to your list and don't want to be, help them get off the list so we
don't get blacklisted by AOL.

Thanks for your help.  If you have any questions about this, let me know.

Tim