AOL Subscribers Aren't Worth The Trouble
As mentioned in a previous post, the AOL's idoitic and ham-handed spam blocker has completely shut down subscriber access to numerous legitimate email lists--including the ones I manage for the Social Daunce Irregulars and the Lively Arts History Association. While this should be serious problem for us as event organizers, it seems to be more of a problem for AOL subscribers.
LAHA and the Social Daunce Irregulars have largely given up sending out paper mailings, due to the ever-growing expense of postage and printing, and have relied on email to get the word out. Even with the AOL subscribers being out of the loop, the sales from non-AOL patrons and AOL patrons who may have heard via the grapevine, has resulted in numerous sold out events over the last year.
So, AOL subscribers, in the Southern California vintage dance market, it would appear that we don't need you.
This is a terrible thing to say, and it bothers me deeply. I am, however, at the end of my patience with AOL, and have come to the point of saying that, if you are an AOL subscriber, and want to actually know what's going on, then you will need to ditch AOL.
For more on my adventures with AOL, and my successful but pointless efforts to get on the "Whitelist", check out my previous posts:
May 30th: The AOL Saga Continues
May 18th: Email Problems...
Comments
I am very concerned that the Whitelist has not been working for you. It has been working for my business for several years now. Possibly the difference is that we "broadcast" our subscription e-mails from an AOL address and I see that you do not. That is the only different variable that I see in our situations. Maybe try that? Just a thought.
Sincerely,
Susan Fox [aka Lady Selene]
Editor of Hollywood News Calendar and sometime Harmless Historical Nut
Posted by: Susan Fox | September 25, 2006 09:54 AM
Hi Susan,
Unfortunately, that would require me signing up for an AOL account and giving money to those bastards. I am not sure it would help either. As I said, I am on the Whitelist, and have been for months, without any effect.
The "dynamic block", I am told by the not too helpful guy in Bangalore who passes for AOL Tech Support, is automatically triggered when any subscriber marks one of my messages as spam--and the block comes down on the whole IP range. So, it could be that I am not even the villain here. I just happen to hang around in the same IP neighborhood with someone who was, at one time, reported as a spammer.
AOL has gotten on my last nerve, and since a list of 1969 people is still a list of 1639 people without my AOL subscribers--and that seems to be enough to sell out all the events I put on, I can only encourge AOL subscribers to either pressure their ISP into getting real, or dump them for a real ISP.
Cheers,
Walter
Posted by: Walter Nelson | September 25, 2006 12:17 PM