On Thu, 10 Aug 1995 10:16:33 CST you said:
>The fact is that AOL users are very prolific on the internet, and are
>my biggest bounced email headache.  The major email headache is due to
>the small email box sizes, but mainly, LISTSERV does NOT recognize the
>AOL bounced email.  This is probably due to AOL not properly
>formatting their bounced email so that listserv can handle it.  I've
>noticed that AOL returns a "551" (full mailbox) and "550" (unknown user)
>but does NOT include the full email address.
 
I  run  a  particular list  called  Help-Net  which  by  its nature  is  very
attractive  to new  Internet users.  Help-Net averages  about 100  messages a
week and  between 1300 -  1600 subscribers,  not counting various  Usenet and
Usenet- like  feeds to it.  I have been  running Help-Net for  something like
six years.
 
Maybe I am  just lucky. There's usually  at least a dozen  AOL subscribers on
Help-Net in addition to many subscribers  from other services such as Prodigy
and  Compuserve.  Rarely  do  I  have   any  problems  with  AOL  or  Prodigy
subscribers. What  I get stuck  with a goodly  amount of times,  although not
often enough  to worry about  it, is  Compuserve subscribers who  either drop
their Compuserve  memberships, run out  of E-mail  quota, or don't  pay their
bills (no kidding!). I  guess I am lucky in terms of my  list's use by AOLers
as they really arent a problem.
 
I can  see why  other Listserv  lists owners are  having this  problem though
because AOL is  giving millions of people Internet access.  AOL is incredibly
agressive  at marketing  their  service. In  fact, I  hope  that more  AOLers
subscribe to  Help-Net. That  way, they  have the  opportunity to  learn good
Internet etiquette and not make pests  of themselves as they post messages on
Usenet groups.
 
In fact,  its Prodigy  that seems  to be  the worst  Internet citizen,  in my
opinion, as to  how they run their system.  I have seen so much  junk mail on
Usenet from Prodigy and  I have complained at least 2  dozen times about such
things to postmaster there. Not once have  I received a response and the same
jokers post the same crap (sex ads in inappropriate places and chain letters)
that I have  since taken the step of  setting up a kill file  for my personal
account so  that I  no longer  see any Prodigy  subscribers postings.  If the
people who run Prodigy were anywhere near  as good as managing their users as
AOL is, Usenet would  not be so cluttered with junk  postings as it currently
is.  Not  that AOL  is  perfect,  but they  have  answered  every one  of  my
complaints and taken appropriate action.
 
Stan Horwitz, Consultant    | Bitnet           | Internet
Temple University           | V4039@TEMPLEVM   | [log in to unmask]
 
Manager of Help-Net and E-mail postmaster for VM.TEMPLE.EDU and TEMPLEVM