for AOL users

Administrivia directed at AOL users:

Apparently there is a "this is spam" button available in the AOL
email interface.

Apparently an AOL subscriber to this very list is hitting that
button in response to valid messages -- messages on the subject of
pinhole photography! -- coming across this list.

Here's what happens when that happens.

AOL contacts my ISP, threatening to blacklist my ISP. Being put
on a blacklist would probably affect tens, maybe hundreds, of
thousands of users, so they take this very seriously.

My ISP contacts me, threatening to blacklist me and my server. This
would affect a handful of people very directly, and a few thousand
people indirectly, via the lists that are hosted here.

Email goes back and forth, a goodly bit of time is wasted, and I
suppose everyone goes into some kind of probation database.

All this for valid email, while the real spam continues to proliferate
(I get >300 true spams on a typical day).

No one ends up on this list without asking to be added. If you
don't like the content of this list, unsubscribe. A link to
instructions on how to unsubscribe are at the bottom of every email
that comes across the list. If you can't figure out how to
unsubscribe, reply to a message from the list using the word
"unsubscribe" in your message. That is not the right way to do it,
but generally the software will intercept those kinds of messages
and send them on to only me. Whether they go to the list or just
to me, I will certainly see them and take action.

If you don't like what certain people have to say, learn to use
filters in your email program. I can't imagine that's the case
with this good natured list, but I couldn't have imagined having
this situation arise, either.

--Eric
_______________________________________________
Post to the list as PLAIN TEXT only - no HTML
pinhole-discussion mailing list
pinhole-discussion@spitbite.org
FAQ at http://spitbite.org/pinhole-discussion/list.html
Received on Thu Jan 13 13:40:57 2005