[Mailman-Users] AOL Rant

[Martin Dennett]

mailman-users-request at python.org wrote:
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> [Mailman-Users] AOL Rant
> From:
> Raquel <raquel at thericehouse.net>
> Date:
> Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:03:03 -0800
> To:
> Mailman-Users at python.org
>
> To:
> Mailman-Users at python.org
>
>
> I've been hosting a few lists using Mailman for quite some time now.
>  Recently AOL has started deferring emails from my server, possibly
> because one person on a list started a new subscription when they
> left AOL and didn't cancel the subscription to the defunct AOL
> address.
>
> AOL sucks!
>
>   
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> Re: [Mailman-Users] AOL Rant
> From:
> Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk>
> Date:
> Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:05:09 +0000
> To:
> Raquel <raquel at thericehouse.net>
>
> To:
> Raquel <raquel at thericehouse.net>
> CC:
> Mailman-Users at python.org
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 11:03:03AM -0800, Raquel wrote:
>   
>> I've been hosting a few lists using Mailman for quite some time now.
>>  Recently AOL has started deferring emails from my server, possibly
>> because one person on a list started a new subscription when they
>> left AOL and didn't cancel the subscription to the defunct AOL
>> address.
>>     
>
> AFIR AOL will do this if they see lots of mail coming from you, it is an
> anti spam measure. If you contact them and say that you run mail lists
> they will enter you into their OK list.
Not all the time they won't. I found out (the hard way) that even being 
added to their whitelist is no guarantee that they'll deliver your mail. 
However, I have the contact details for the UK AOL Anti-spam analyst 
(after making a lot of noise) and discovered why AOL do what they do.

It can be dependant on some of the URL's that your users regularly add 
to their signature. If the site that's there is on AOL's blacklist, the 
whole mail gets bounced. All you can do at that point is to tell your 
users to refrain from adding the URL. It worked for me - now, I don't 
get any AOL members bouncing.

MD