Eric Thomas wrote the following on 6/18/2007 11:33 AM:

> I have to tell you that my experience has been that, while the
> majority of spam reports appear to be from people who are too lazy to
> click on the unsubscribe link, there are a lot of spam reports from
> people who do not think the list messages are spam at all, and may not
> have understood the difference between "delete" and "report as spam."

I was part of the group that was involved with the AOL feedback loop when
Maelstrom was still running, and we discovered a few interesting things
after contacting AOL subscribers who reported mail as junk.

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.

Following AOL's own instructions to filter mail from unwanted senders to
the spam folder will cause those messages to be reported as spam. If
subscribers are filtering specific posters, they should filter directly
to the trash or delete them manually.

If the subscriber elects to have their spam automatically deleted rather
than filtered any messages that end up mistakenly marked as spam will be
treated as spam.

My list sends out the following to all of our AOL subscribers. If anyone
wishes to use it please feel free.

To prevent list mail from being reported to AOL in error, please take the
following steps.

1. Go to Keyword: "Spam Controls," click on "AOL's Advanced Spam Filter."
Click "Clear Filter," then hit "Save." OR under "Spam Controls" click off
"Mail filtered by AOL's Advanced Spam Filter." (Note that this will turn
off much of your spam controls).

2. Add the list mail address to your online address book, AND/OR go to
"Settings" click on tab "A to Z." Click on "Address Book Settings," then
click "Automatically add e-mail address to my Address Book, then click
"Save."

3. Set your Spam Controls to save all blocked mail in the "spam folder."
Check the spam folder whenever you check your mail to see if list mail is
being delivered there. If it is, click "This is not spam," to move it to
your in box and cancel the report. If after doing the above steps, list
mail is still being delivered to your spam folder, you may wish to
contact AOL or consider switching service providers.

--
Karen Reznek
head listowner -- Asperger
Director -- ICORS