To answer the question Charles Oriez asks about where I got looping in my
head, it was from the last paragraph of the page which comes up from the AOL
URL given in my first message:

 

"Please have your ISP or server administrator contact AOL for assistance.
The mail administrator should request a feedback loop that will alert them
to reported spam from their network. You can access the Feedback Loop
request form here."

 

I did not include this because it was in the same page, and it directs
something that is very difficult for me to do.  It puts me between a rock
and a hard place.  My list is hosted by a large university but it is
completely unconnected from the host. It is only one of about 250 lists, yet
it is one of the two or three largest with the other large ones being
connected with the university.  The university has no interest in
FloridaBirds-L as I am just the recipient of their kindness to let me use
their facility and in no way am I given any authority as the administrator.
I am merely a listowner of a non-university list, and thus quite low on the
totem pole.  I am very fond of Listserv and appreciative of being allowed to
use it by U. of Florida as a benevolence.  And there are many people all
over the world who get to read it about Florida birds through the national
and international internet magazines which pick it up resend the messages to
their subscribers.  Naturally, the University administration of Listserv is
not the slightest interested in getting a list of the complainers from AOL,
nor do I want to ask them to do that.  Out of sight to them, out of mind, I
hope.

 

Every new or renewing subscriber gets a message from Listserv giving unsub
information as well as information required for posting.  I personally and
manually send each one a 12K expanded welcome and policy statement with
links to the SUB/UNSUB page.

 

This is my bottom banner:

_______________________________________________________________________

FLORIDABIRDS-L Listserv mailing list information:

Member photos  I: http://bkpass.tripod.com/floridabirds.htm

Member photos II: http://floridabirds-l.50megs.com/

For archives:   http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/floridabirds-l.html

Set nomail: Click:  mailto:[log in to unmask] Set floridabirds-l nomail

Listowner: Click:  mailto:[log in to unmask]

 

Actually, there are seven lines.  I cannot afford another line. 

 

As to the archives page, that is strictly a Listserv creation and I have
nothing at all to do with it or about it.  If I could I would prefer to have
the logs set up chronologically instead of by subject.  We are still on
Version 1.8d so the internet interface is not available.  And there is
nothing I can do about that nor anyone else until 1.8e is installed.  I
doubt it will be any time soon.  Not long ago, I did get the administrator
to change from monthly to weekly logs, but I really hate to ask for any
service from the administrator.

 

I failed to say that about 25% of the 900 subscribers are users of AOL,
probably because many travel for the seasons as right now to get away from
the cold North.  Until now, I have never had a bobble from AOL in the 4.5
years since I created the list.  Not that it matters, I guess.  

 

It was interesting, however, that almost immediately after I sent my message
to this list, there was a total cessation of error messages from AOL.  I
would have thought they had read my message here on this list except it had
not reached you by then when I first received a post with no accompanying
error messages.  Or it could be that AOL had set a certain number of hours
in which to shoot their bullets.

 

I will write the abuse@ as you suggest.  And not only is this list optin but
no one can post without giving me certain contact information so that I may
contact them if the need arises and further protects the list in other ways.

The address to contact me is always in the bottom banner and is widely used.

 

Thanks for your detailed answer, Charles.  

 

Barbara Passmore

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: LISTSERV list owners' forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Charles Oriez
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 6:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LSTOWN-L] AOL problems

 

At 02:18 PM 12/20/2004, you wrote:

>Now, the URL problem apparently has suddenly been dropped, and for every

>message posted to FLORIDABIRDS-L, I am getting an error message for the
same

>people as follows: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rlyb1.html

>Somewhere along the way, the same message with the same URL has been sent

>for one cs.com and two wmconnect.com as well.  I surmised these servers are

>subentities under the AOL aegis.  From the page accessed by this URL, it

>appears that they are saying there is a looping problem.

 

 

cs.com is compuserv.  wmconnect is wal-mart.  both domains are owned by AOL

 

I'm not sure where you picked up the looping idea.  they are saying that 

enough of their AOL members reported the originating IPA of your list 

messages as a spam source that they have listed it, and asked that you 

check it for being an open relay. They aren't saying necessarily that your 

list messages are being reported as spam, but someone using the same server 

as you is sending what AOL members are reporting as spam.

 

I ran my open relay check on what appears to be your standard IPA 

(128.227.128.110) and got negative results. I also checked the anti-spam 

sightings list on usenet, and got zero results from that IPA as well as the 

entire /24.  Whoever answers [log in to unmask] can tell you whether they've 

been getting spam complaints, but all the evidence I looked at says no.

 

I looked at your list messages archive (which is a separate security hole 

that should be fixed) and didn't see instructions in the message footer for 

unsubscribing from the list.  One annoyance with AOL members on lists is 

their tendency to treat their "report as spam" button as a means to unsub 

from lists.  I've documented to AOL that my lists are run as confirmed 

optin so AOL doesn't block my stuff.  The list site administrator for UFL 

may have to do the same.

 

-- 

[log in to unmask] 39  34' 34.4"N / 105 00' 06.3"W       AIM handle caoriez

"My perception was/is that while the rest of the computer world was 

striving for Fault Tolerant Software, Micro$oft was working on Fault 

Tolerant Users." -- Charlie Gibbs in alt.folklore.computers