Discard previous; some bad info.
The irony is during the beginning of the Internet, a lot of us were AOL
users. Then voila! It dawned on us that if you spent more time web-surfing
or sending e-mail, you didn't need AOL or any of its extra "features." You
just needed a browser and a reliable service provider.
** I began noticing problems getting WORSE with AOL users about a month ago.
At first, like everyone else, I thought AOL's spam filters had been set
manually by users (or set by default by AOL) at different levels of
"safety." My "workaround" was to make sure my mail was sent to individual
AOL users and to a long list of other pals.
But no. My mail to friends and business associates/clients who still use
AOL -- person-to-person and business-to-business -- has been delayed or not
delivered at all. It's worse than ever before. Mail that does get through
-- results in responses from people to stuff I wrote days before.
** The problem is not mail FROM users of AOL -- but mail TO users of AOL.
I've given up sending mail to AOL users. If it's urgent, I'll call. If
it's not urgent, I might send an e-mail and take the gamble it'll MIGHT get
through.
** The problem is CLEARLY with AOL. This is now beyond being an
"annoyance." It's disrupting personal and business communications
worldwide.
** Unless AOL's own subscribers -- complain en masse that they're not
getting mail from friends or dealers with whom they are transacting business
-- NOTHING will be done. There is NO incentive for AOL to do anything
unless they feel they might potentially lose subscribers. It's not like
eBay being unresponsive to complaints. We're talking basic person-to-person
e-mail.
There was a time when "hotmail.com" was one of the biggest problems on the
Internet. You couldn't trust it because a lot of spam was sent by Hotmail
(and Yahoo) users. Now Hotmail has one of the best and most flexible spam
filters around and I'm now a premium user who pays only $29 a YEAR to have
2GB worth of storage. I have a two Yahoo accounts -- but in my view,
Hotmail's interface and flexibility, its ability to display e-mail headers
with IP locator codes more easily to identify bogus scams and spam
masquerading as legitimate mail -- its mandatory built-in virus checker for
all incoming mail -- its ability to let you mark legitimate users as "safe"
-- and those who aren't as "junk" -- makes Hotmail is a snap. Its only
drawback is you can only attach images one file at a time.
Next to hosting your own web space, Hotmail is now fine. I don't use
Outlook Express (built into most Windows operating systems) to sort e-mail,
which has an address book that was once responsible for spreading viruses
around the world.
** AOL is headed for extinction and the tragedy is many users are now bound
to it. Their accounts are linked to business/banking and other important
activities. Many AOL users feel it's too much hassle to change providers,
re-registering their new contact info with creditors and friends and
dealers, etc. AOL users, through no fault of their own, are getting slammed
if they continue to rely upon it as their primary e-mail account. Alert
notices from friends and creditors using other providers aren't getting
through to AOL users.
Sorry for all of the words, but please -- all users of AOL -- please send a
two-line note to AOL's "Help" or "Customer Service" departments. It will
take less than 60 seconds to copy and paste:
"URGENT: Please reply within 48 hours. Hundreds of thousands of AOL users,
including myself -- are not getting critical e-mail from friends and
creditors -- who aren't AOL users. Many AOL users will be forced to cancel
their subscriptions. Please advise if you have received similar reports --
and what you are doing to correct this problem. Thank you."
-d.
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