Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 03:50:14 +0100 (BST) From: honey To: sinister-aol@missprint.org Subject: AOL Sinister subscribers - please read and do not discard as SPAM I'm mailing the 94 AOL users who are subscribed to either the sinister or sinister-digest lists, because one or more of you is marking mails from sinister as SPAM with AOL. This is putting the whole list in jeopardy and costing me days of work: my hosting company is urging me to remove all AOL users (all of you) from the list. I don't wish to do this, but will if I have to, so this mail is an attempt to solve the problem before I have to take that step. I hope this mail gets to you without also being blocked. *** IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE MAILS FROM SINISTER, PLEASE DO NOT MARK SINISTER MAILS AS SPAM IN AOL *** - simply unsubscribe by following the instructions on the website: send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" in the BODY of a text to the address majordomo@missprint.org. If your mail is being forwarded from AOL to another address, simply add the address on the end, e.g. "unsubscribe sinister-digest JSmith@aol.com" and I will approve the unsubscription request soon. Heck, this is such a desperate problem, just mail ME and I'll do it for you if you receive this mail and want off. In order for me to find out who's sending these spam complaints in, could everyone who receives this mail and wishes to stay on Sinister please reply to this mail (to this address, missprint@missprint.org - just hit Reply), saying "yes" in the body of your mail. Please leave the subject the same as it is (it's ok if your mailer prefixes it with "Re:" or something) - it will help me sort the 94 replies. It is likely that I'll unsubscribe all people who don't reply quickly. My hosting company is penalising me for the erroneous AOL spam complaint(s) by blocking mail to ALL outgoing email to the list to everyone. I know it's wishing for a lot, but if the person(s) who have marked Sinister mail as spam could get in touch, there would be no recriminations whatsoever - I'd just be grateful that I could clean this up more quickly. Please note also that AOL is separately blocking mails to yourselves, and you will definitely have missed some - I can do nothing about this but plead with the person who is marking Sinister mail as SPAM to stop doing it. You could plead with them too. It would probably also help if you all mailed postmaster@aol.com, or the AOL support desk, and complained that mail from missprint.org was being blocked, and make sure you tell them you've never received spam from this source, that it's an opt-in non-commercial mailing list, and you're upset AOL are blocking it. I'm doing a ton of other things to try and ameliorate AOL and my hosting company on this idiot situation, so won't have time to reply to private discussion on this really, unless you have significant new information or work for AOL: sorry, but I'm completely exhausted. If you wish to see the page of relevance that explains what AOL are doing to me, go here: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421rlyh1.html AOL's policy at believing the word of every subscriber who happens to hit the spam button on a mail just isn't tenable, and I'm not sure how long I can accommodate you all, but I'll try and hang on in there a bit longer if you'll respond. So in summary: * Don't ever ever mark Sinister mails as spam. If you're stuck with any aspect of the list, including leaving, mail me. If you're sick of the list or angry at something, shout at me. Don't hit "spam". * If you have done so, please mail me at honey@missprint.org. There will be no shouting. * If you wish to remain on the list (or digest), reply to this message to missprint@missprint.org and say "yes" in the body of the mail. It's likely if you don't quickly that you'll be unsubscribed and possibly banned to save the integrity of the list - sorry. * I might add weight to the suggestion of my hosting server that you all consider unsubscribing from Sinister with your AOL addresses, and resubscribing with a new ISP, or a Webmail account (hotmail, gmail etc.). You'll be missing mail right now due to AOL's policy and the actions of one of your AOL neighbours, and in future, I may have to ban AOL addresses completely to save the list without warning. Sorry, I'm trying not to. Shouting at AOL about it would help. Thank you, Honey --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 01:53:28 +0100 (BST) From: missprint-aol@missprint.org To: sinister-aol@missprint.org Subject: Removing AOL users from Sinister Dear Sinister AOL users, Thank you to the 12 of you who responded - you won't be removed from the list. But please see below. For the rest of you, I'm afraid the situation's got so dire since I last mailed that I'm now going to unsubscribe you all from the list. I'd like to have waited 2 weeks, but I can't. I now have evidence from my hosting company of AOL users marking Sinister mails as spam; and hopefully soon I may be able to track them down. Ludicrously, they're even marking *these* mails as spam which AOL has gullibly counted against me, so this may be malicious. Two of you are doing it. So: if you didn't reply to my last mail and are reading this, then you'll need to re-subscribe to either the main list or the digest - see the website. If you want to be sure, it does no harm to try to subscribe again - it won't put you on twice, it'll just tell you you're on already. But I'm going to advise all AOL users strongly now to find a new ISP, or use a webmail account. I have about 40 Gmail invitations to spare if you want one - just ask. You will continue to lose significant amounts of mail due to the actions of your fellow AOLer(s), who have suddenly taken it upon themselves to do this, and I'm having to play cat 'n' mouse all day, just to stop it having a knock-on effect on everyone. I've failed several times, and messages have got lost. The effect of this is that I may have to ban all AOL subscriptions to the list very soon if this doesn't work, possibly without warning if they block my mails to you. I've done my best with AOL, but it isn't working. I'm really sorry, they're more prepared to believe any AOL user who says something's spam than actually scan the content and see it isn't. I'd advise you check the archive to see what you missed. Sorry all. Really, mail AOL - it's their system. Honey