> Sometimes AOL filters get a little too aggressive and put listmail and
> administrative messages in the spam folder. If these are not removed
> they
> are reported to AOL as spam. Unless subscribers check their spam folder
> during every mail session mail and mark all legitimate mail everything
> in there will be reported as spam.

This sounds like a textbook example of how NOT to design a system whose bottom line is "one strike and you're out" (which as you know is the way AOL demands that senders process their spam reports). The system should not generate spam complaints on the basis of messages that no actual human being has reported as spam, or indeed even looked at. I had to disable the junk mail function in Outlook because some mail from my colleagues was randomly saved in the junk mail folder and unanswered. We were never able to figure out why, and the messages definitely did not contain any "spammy" words. I would hate to think that closing Outlook without having investigated that folder carefully would have ANY lasting consequences, but this seems to be exactly what AOL has implemented.

> Following AOL's own instructions to filter mail from unwanted senders
> to the spam folder will cause those messages to be reported as spam.

This is even more absurd. If there is one specific poster on the list whose messages you do not care to read, for instance because he writes in a language you do not speak, the entire list is reported as spam.

It seems that the reason AOL users are managing to stay on LISTSERV lists (if at an unreasonably high burden to list owners, who have to keep re-adding them all the time) is that organizations do not have the manpower to implement AOL's requirements for spam feedback loops. This will change with LISTSERV 15.5, and AOLers will end up having to get another ISP if they want to maintain subscription status - or petition AOL to fix their system. With an estimated 10M AOL subscriptions to LISTSERV lists, maybe AOL will listen.

Of course, another option will be for the LISTSERV administrators to keep the "don't ask, don't tell" status quo and continue to process AOL spam complaints manually "as time allows." But following AOL's requirements does result in a sharp reduction of spam complaints and an improvement of your delivery rates (0.56% AOL block rate when I last checked). Here are my statistics on number of spam complaints, which start on the day when I implemented the new feature as I basically dropped every other development project to take care of the barrage of complaints:

2007-06-15     43 (Friday)
2007-06-16      5 (Saturday)
2007-06-17     11 (Sunday)
2007-06-18      7 (Monday)

I have nothing against AOL specifically and hope to be able to automatically process other ISPs' spam reports as well in the future. AOL just came first because they are largest. The history of this feature is:

1. AOL suddenly starts blocking all mail from my new server because of "high" volume (30k/day - WOW).

2. All AOL subscribers get auto-deleted. Barrage of incoming complaints along the lines of, "What happened??? This is a disaster! I badly want back on the list!"

3. My ONLY option is to apply for whitelisting, which requires receiving spam reports (which in itself is a good thing).

4. I get a barrage of spam reports that I cannot even act on manually because they lack the necessary information. But unless I magically act on them anyway, I will be blacklisted and go back to point 2.

5. I implement the automatic processing feature, and it works very well - for me. Not sure it is what AOL's customers want, but that is actually not my problem. Besides, we are far better off than before. The server now has 5,397 active AOL subscriptions vs. 0 at point 2. And that also tells you that 5,397 AOL customers went to the trouble of re-subscribing after their ISP caused them to be auto-deleted since all the server's mail was blocked. If they each spent an optimistic 2 minutes figuring out what happened and re-subscribing, 180h were wasted on this - $18k at $100/hour. I wish they would send AOL a bill for their time, maybe it would set some wheels in motion.

I am also hoping (perhaps unrealistically) that my now excellent AOL stats will allow me to be auto-promoted to the Enhanced Whitelist, which will stop the annoying URL blocks that still cause some AOLers to get kicked out of lists they want to stay on.

  Eric