The fact that AOL allows their customers to block spam domains is
great! The trouble is, that's not all AOL customers use it for.
I run a number of lists for alumni of my high school. Lots of AOL
customers zubscribe. Often they tire of the high volume of the
general list. Do they unzubscribe? Nooo... they blacklist the domain
from which the list is mailed. So far, OK. I get the bounces, (*all*
the lists' messages bounce because everything is blacklisted) I unzub
the person from all the lists, and all is well. A pain, but not a
real problem.
*Then* they try to rezubscribe to one of the lower-volume lists, or
they complain that their zubscription stopped. One kind person wrote
to observe that our web page hadn't been updated lately and to inquire
whether I am OK. (I'm not. I have the flu.) I was touched by the
message, but I *can't reply to it*! Another one sends me a message
about once a month saying, "I did something wrong... I want to be back
on the list." I remember this person from high school, I had a crush
on her, but I can't help her because she has my mail blocked! I can't
even tell her why I can't help.
OK, AOL... here's what I want you to do about this: Please fix your
mailer system so that your customers can't send mail *to* a domain
they've blocked. Give them a reasonable error message, one that
explains how to remove a block, and let them decide whether to keep
the block, but don't let them send me any more plaintive messages I
can't do anything about!
Thank you.
--Bob
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