if AOL subscribers cared about standards
compliance they would have left AOL long ago.
You're wrong about that. Remember when AOL didn't have anything to do
with the Internet? That the standards for some of the services that AOL
sells are written and published by AOL instead of the IETF, ITU, ANSI, or
IEEE doesn't make them any less interesting to those buying those services.
nothing that AOL does on its own is standard. to use the term "standard"
in that way is to make the term meaningless.
the people who I'm receiving mail from are not complaining about AOL not
following its own "standards"; they're complaining about AOL's failure
to interoperate with Internet Mail. and rightfully so.
Note that I think AOL ought to be sued for false advertising because
of the SMTP redirection proxies it interposes in the services that it
does claim have something to do with the Internet.
that's just one item in a long list.
Keith