[epub] Re: A O L Not welcome.

[Henrik Leghissa <soulreaper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 21:10 2003-10-08, MaidenFate@xxxxxxx wrote:
> David,
>
> You make some excellent points, but this one was a bit faulty:
>
> <<We, as ezine and list publishers have to ask ourselves...are the people
> we want to reach AOL users? My answer is no, because I want to
> reach advanced internet users.>>
>
> I've been on the Internet since 1989. I've run several online magazines and
> worked as the overnight editor of The New York Times on the Web. Currently 
> I'm
> the associate producer of content at Real Networks. Just because I use an AOL
> address doesn't mean I'm a newbie. I simply like the service AOL provides for
> $14.95/mo. And when you get 500 e-mails a day, switching ISPs is often more
> trouble than its worth.

What do you mean now? (and does this include spam?)

Why not get a standalone email-service and then have whatever contractor 
for your "raw" Internet-connection?

This don't have to be THAT expensive, and you probably will receive better 
service and functions.


> (In reality, most of my problems with e-mail delivery have come from Juno,
> Hotmail or MSN.com addresses.

This also means those who use hotmail&co as "drop emailboxes", aka spammers 
who utilize open-relay servers to send out their... crap?!


> Perhaps because people often use Web-based e-mail
> as backup and then forget to read or clean out their their mailboxes. But I'm
> not about to ban all Juno, Hotmail or MSN users.)

As these mailproviders are HUGE, banning those would be "suicide". So, 
setting up procmail (for example) scripts can be a good way to get less of 
all these bounces, to mention one example when it comes to sending out 
larger amounts of email.


> Of AOL's 25.3 million subscribers, I'm willing to bet that a large percentage
> of them will have an interest in cooking, writing, business, "your e-zine's
> topic here." Why lose out on this business? It may be frustrating for the
> publisher, but no one said being a publisher was easy. Work with AOL on 
> getting
> listed on its "I'm not a spammer" list. It's definitely worth the effort.

The above is so very true, though for example if you are using a webhotel 
service which is shared by other users, and uses their smtp-server, or have 
a dynamic host to your office and send out your email yourself can mean 
trouble for you, as you can share the same services as spammers, which your 
ISP perhaps don't give a rat's a** about.

I had to change my mail-configuration just now, as my provider's 
smtp-server was blocked by Yahoo!. This means that I've switched off the 
"smart relay" function in sendmail (smtp-server) and added all the domains 
that I have to add in "mailertable" in order to use my ISP's smtp-server to 
send out email to those particular domains. Aol.com is one of these 
domains, charter.net is another.


<SIGH> The E-world IS *tricky* at times </SIGH>




 / H 


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