OT: AOL Users (Charlie Self)

[Bob S.]

There's some interesting news from Fred Langa's newsletter this morning that should have AOL users up in arm's. AOL is now snooping into your email and deleting it before it even gets to you if the email has a URL that matches one in their database as being one of the so called "bad guy's". Fred goes on to explain how his newsletter is blocked by AOL simply because a few readers blocked his letter rather than unsubscribe. AOL reads your private blocked list and then if they find that 10 AOL members have blocked an address, it's then placed on a master list and no one using AOL will receive the email.

Knowing that Charlie Self is an AOL user and that I've had problems sending him a couple of emails in the past, I sent him an email this morning (which he didn't get) telling him to read the attached page from the newsletter. A moment later I got a Mail Delivery Subsystem from AOL. Below is an extract from that email minus the address info.........

" ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- (reason: 554-: (HVU:B1) The URL contained in your email to AOL members has generated a high volume of compla...licited Bulk Email policies, AOL will no longer accept email with the URL contained in your message.)"

So even a simple email with a >> reference

[Bernie Hunt]

They also tend to strip off embedded images and external links. We send out newletters from our business and the AOL receipients usually don't get all the images.

and

[Charlie Self]

Bernie Hunt responds:

I'm not sure that's the way it goes. I didn't get Bob's email, but if he'd been in my address book, it would have come through. AOL is using the damned address book as a designator of who gets by and who doesn't, with some ludicrous results, IMO.

At the moment, I'm in no position to change over, so am stuck with it for probably 2-3 more months.

Maybe, just maybe, if I get back to where I belong by then, I'll get my own website, with mailboxes, set up.

Bob: See if you can munge your email address in a manner that I can translate, and I'll stick it in my mailbox. Anyone else having problems getting through to me, do the same.

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

[Bob S.]

Charlie,

I don't think (but could be wrong) that the email was rejected because of my address not being on your list. The returned error message stated it was because of the URL. I may not be on your list but a couple of months ago I had sent you an email - and you answered. But then again, about 3 weeks ago you were asking for some links for antique pictures of woodworking tools and I sent you an email that you did not respond to.

So here's a test:

1. I will send an email to you that has a subject line of "Meeting on 27 Apr

04" with nothing but me email address in the body.

1. A second email, same subject line with Fred Langa's URL in the body.

See which gets thru if any.

Bob S.

[Charlie Self]

Just fine. Got 2 copies of it to read now.

Charlie Self "Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure." Ambrose Bierce

[Tom]

This has got to be a joke, right? Someday, it'll all be over....

[Bob Haar]

You're an AOL user and you have to ask if this is a joke? I left AOL years ago and have never regretted it.

[JLucas ILS]

I have been with AOL since 92 and I dont trust them either but the two errors described are probably not AOL's doing. First, they strip email from images but the reader can download them simply by checking a button. As to automatic deletion, that is a preference that can be set as part of

9.0 as it can be with many other providers. AOL users do have a SPAM file which shows all the URL's and addresses that have been placed there...and blocked. As I say, I blindly assume AOL is at fault if there is a problem...with these two problems there are other areas to look.

[Lee Gordon]

Charlie ...

A particular headache for all of us Comcast users who used to be with ATT Broadband. Lots of AOL users still have us in their address books with our old attbi.com addresses. For the rest of this year, mail addressed to attbi.com still gets delivered to the comcast.com addressee. But when we try to reply from our present comcast.com addresses, they don't match what's in the AOL user's address book and are subject to blocking. So, a reminder to everyone: go though your address books and change any attbi.com entries to comcast.com so your friends can still get through to you (& vice versa).

Lee