[Mailman-Users] Our list serv host is threatening to shut us down for spam abuse

[Jim Dory]

I was using the term List-serv as a generic term meaning a mailing list
people subscribe to in order to receive messages sent by members via email.
I am not aware, nor care to be aware, of technical definitions between
Mailman and Listserv. I am a volunteer so those concerns are above my pay
grade. BUT - I won't use the term "listserv" here again.

Thanks for your suggestions. I am taking all those steps - though I haven't
added the header yet. I have sent several messages to users trying to
educate them (and copied to the host's trouble ticket). The host gave me an
example of a complaint received, so I tried contacting the subscriber to
see if he was satisfied or not with the service and whether or not he
wanted unsubscribed. I also asked if he would tell me how he was using his
email client in regards our messages. No response. I did unsubscribe him,
telling him he was welcome to resubscribe if it were in error.

I've started the feedback loops with AOL and Yahoo. Microsoft is
problematic.

The footer of each message/digest gives clear instructions for
unsubscribing.

thanks again, Jim

On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 9:27 AM, Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net> wrote:

> On 06/16/2016 04:04 PM, Jim Dory wrote:
> > So, anyone recommend more list-serv friendly hosts?
>
>
> If you're looking for listserv(r), you're in the wrong place. See
> <https://wiki.list.org/DOC/Mailman%20is%20not%20Listserv>.
>
> To address your actual issue, the problem is your list members are
> reporting list mail to their ISPs as spam. You MAY be able to address
> this by education. You need to ensure that no one is added to the list
> without opt-in and you need to remind members that if they don't want
> list mail, their recourse should be to unsubscribe, and that reporting
> some mail as spam will not result in selective filtering of some mail or
> action against the posters of mail they don't like, it will onlt result
> in all list mail being blocked for everyone.
>
> You may be able to negotiate with your host over measures you can take,
> but the main thing is to train users not to click the 'spam' button and
> to give them easy ways to unsubscribe and to complain to you.
>
> If you convince your host you are trying, they may understand, but they
> are stuck - your user's spam reports are giving your server's IP a bad
> reputation and causing all your mail and, if it's a shared host, other
> customer's mail too to be blocked by various ISPs. The host has to
> convince those ISPs that they are doing something about this.
>
> In the long run, just switching hosts will not solve this problem if you
> can't convince your users not to report mail from a list they signed up
> for as spam.
>
> You might try adding a msg_header and digest_header[1] with a "you are
> receiving this mail because you subscribed to ... To unsubscribe, ...
> Please don't report this as spam ..." type of message.
>
> [1] Depending on your list's content filtering, and your user's MUAs,
> *_header may be problematic and editing *_footer may be better. See
> <https://wiki.list.org/x/4030707>.
>
> --
> Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
> San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan
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