IP: Anti-spam measures by AOL over the top?

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 15:52:18 -0700
> From: Harry Saal <Harry () Saal org>
> To: Dave Farber <Dave () farber net>
> Subject: Anti-spam measures by AOL over the top?
>
> This is the second such list I participate in, which seems no longer
> able to reach its members with aol.com addresses. Has the nation of
> AOL really decided to become even more distant from the rest of the
> universe? Whatever new "anti-spam" measures they have introduced lately
> seem to be splattering the "good guys", without any procedure to
> appeal the matter to higher powers.
>
> >  Dear xxxxxx, this is a plea for advice from any of you in the IT
> >  world. We have been recently been having huge problems with distributing
> >  our (subscription only, NOT spam) newsletter to our patrons with e-mail
> >  addresses on AOL. The system that Case built seems to be filtering out
> >  maybe half of our transmissions. This morning we tried a new approach and
> >  created an AOL Screen Name (from Roberto's personal account) and managed to
> >  send most of the addresses (aprox 1650 in batches of 200) then suddenly got
> >  a message that "bulk mail is against AOL Terms of Service, this account is
> >  being deactivated" and not just the WINE EXPO screen name but Roberto's
> >  ENTIRE personal account was shut down.
> >
> >  If any of our net savvy friends have any ideas about:
> >
> >  A) why a company big enough to buy TIME WARNER has no listings in 
> > the phone book
> >
> >  B) how a legitimate mailing list run by folks who hate spam more than AOL
> >  does can reach it's subscribers on AOL
> >
> >  or C) how in the hell to contact an actual human being to talk to about this
> >
> >  your help would be GREATLY appreciated!
> >
> >  Pulling our hair out, Roberto