Well, implementing your mail-merge feature might enable you to solve the problem by less dramatic means, through the feedback loop. Unless AOL is going to take a lot of trouble to edit/sanitize reported mail to clean out the results of the "Attn: &*TO;" substitution, once you activate the banner you'll be able to identify the reporting user, and then unsubscribe them. >>> [log in to unmask] 5/18/2004 1:42:31 AM >>> I host a number of lists on my server for various Boy Scouts groups in the Denver Area. These lists are hosted for free, along with other activities of a more commercial nature. All lists I host require confirmation before subscribing, so nobody gets on unless they really want to be there. A situation has come up over the last month or so with a few (3-4) subscribers to some of these free lists that I host on my LISTSERV Server. These persons all use AOL.com as their ISP. AOL's email client has a 'report-as-spam' button, located immediately next to the 'Delete' button. This close proximity may be a cause of accidental error, or these people (or others in their family that share the same email account) may really intend to report the list email they receive as 'spam'. Whatever their reason is, the result is that they (falsely) report this Scouting mail as spam, which causes AOL to block my server. I have discovered by painful experience that as few as 3 complaints will result in blocking of my server. AOL blocks automatically based on the number of complaints received over some unknown period of time (probably 1 day). After several of these automatic blocks, the block becomes permanent until I beg and plead with AOL and explain the situation. AOL of course will not reveal who the complainers are, for privacy reasons. I would be happy to remove these few people if I could just figure out who they are. It costs me significant time and effort to get this blockage cleared and it is really annoying to have the block reinstated automatically by someone apparently cleaning out their mailbox. I can tell this because I have setup a feedback loop with aol.com. They will forward to me copies of any/all emails reported to them as TOS-spam (Terms of Service spam). While I can't tell who the mail was sent to, I can tell what list(s) it came from. Just last Friday evening, 16 TOS-spam complaints were filed over a 10 minute period. In reverse sequential order they are old posts from 4 of my scouting lists going back to early April. That looks like someone cleaning their mailbox. I have determined that I cannot let this condition continue. I must delete these reporting user(s). I feel I must choose one of the following courses of action to be certain of deleting them. I find all of them unpleasant. I seek your suggestions and advice as to which option below I should take or any other suggestions you may have for dealing with the problem. 1. Delete everyone with *@aol.com addresses from all lists. Send them an email message explaining the problem of false report-as-spam and (perhaps with clickable links) to make it easy for them to resubscribe to the list(s) they were formerly subscribed to, but ONLY if they promise/agree never to report such voluntarily requested mail as spam and agree that they have an obligation to unsubscribe rather than report-as-spam if they no longer want to receive mail from the list. (A separate but similar explanatory message would be sent to all non-aol.com subscribers making them aware of the problem also.) 2. Delete absolutely everyone from all lists. Send them an email message explaining the problem of false report-as-spam and (perhaps with clickable links) to make it easy for them to resubscribe to the list(s) they were formerly subscribed to, but ONLY if they promise/agree never to report such voluntarily requested mail as spam and agree that they have an obligation to unsubscribe rather than report-as-spam if they no longer want to receive mail from the list. 3. Discontinue hosting of these lists. In any case, the following banner will now appear at the _top_ of all messages to any/all such free lists hosted on my server. I use Mail-Merge= Yes (and I have LSMTP) to populate the &*TO; with each recipient's email address everytime. ======================================== Attn: &*TO; You subscribed to this list voluntarily. Therefore, email from this list should NEVER be reported as 'spam' to your ISP (or anywhere else) because you have specifically _requested_ to receive this email. If you have changed your mind and you no longer want to receive this email, you have an obligation to unsubscribe, rather than report the email as 'spam' (mail you don't want to receive). When you falsely report this list's email as 'spam' it causes business disruption to the server site hosting this list as a _free_ service to your community. Further disruptions from such false 'spam' reports may result in termination of this list for ALL participants. Please learn the difference between the 'delete' and 'report-as-spam' buttons in your email client program and remember the obligation you accepted by subscribing here in the first place. If you share your email account with others, be certain they clearly understand not to 'report-as-spam' this list's email by mistake! If you no longer want to receive email from this list, please UNSUBSCRIBE by writing to &LISTNAME-SIGNOFF-REQUEST@&MYHOST Or please write to the Site Administrator at LISTSERV-REQUEST@&MYHOST We will facilitate your prompt removal from all lists on the server. ======================================== Your comments on any of this will be appreciated. Thanks!