You should have read Eric's Article at his site fully. I followed the
link at the bottom of his page to the original article:
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3581301
which has a link to an updated article that stated that they (AOL) would
continue their enhanced whitelist service.
http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3583201
Curtis Maurand
Chris Barnes wrote:
I am sending this to every email list to which I subscribe - because
most of them use the Listserv software written by Eric Thomas. I have
*personally* known Eric Thomas since he first wrote Listserv back in
1985. Not only is he one of the smartest IT guys I have ever known, he
is also one of the wisest in that he has the ability to look at the Big
Picture.
Read what he says and understand that this is not coming from someone
who is prone to wild accusations, nor is he a "pro-spammer" even to the
slightest degree. Also realize that what he says of the Goodmail
program's impact on Listserv lists, will also affect lists run by other
mailing list managers such as MailMan, Listproc, etc. In other words,
virtually every free public email list available - anywhere on the
Internet.
From the Listserv Listowner's email list archives at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0602&L=lstsrv-l&T=0&P=429
L-Soft has joined the growing number of companies that protest
against
AOL's recent announcement that it will phase out its Enhanced
Whitelist
service in June in favour of Goodmail CertifiedEmail, which carries an
as
yet unspecified per-message fee. In a nutshell, companies like L-Soft
get
on the AOL whitelist by following good e-mail practices, such as
cleaning
up dead addresses, making it easy for people to leave mailing lists,
and
of course not sending any spam. This is all going to be thrown out
the
window and replaced with the payment of hard currency to Goodmail.
People
who can afford to pay this fee will have the privilege of reaching
AOL
subscribers, others will end up in junk folders. Yahoo is expected
to
follow down the same path.
I have nothing against certification as an additional tool in the
fight
against spam. Knowing that message such and such genuinely comes from
its
purported sender can help improve the accuracy of your spam filter.
I
also understand that certification costs money, unless sponsored by
the
government or by volunteers donating their time to the cause. But I
think
per-message certification fees make as much sense as per-click
SSL
certificate fees. I also find that the "rumoured" rates that have
been
mentioned in some of the press articles are totally out of
proportion
with the service being provided. The fee is several times what
providers
currently charge for the service of hosting the mailing list,
removing
dead addresses, making backups, etc. As an illustration, a typical
hobby
list would cost on the order of $500-1000 a year. An active list
could
cost $10k or more a year. This may not be much for the
advertisement
manager of a large company, not when compared to print adverts, but
what
about the rest of us? I know L-Soft hosting customers cannot afford
the
price increase that would be necessary to cover an identification fee
of
five figures PER DAY.
And for many of us, this identification fee is not even an option. To
be
eligible for Goodmail accreditation, you must "have business
headquarters
located in the United States or Canada." Foreigners need not bother.
You
must also "have at least a 6 month mailing history from [the] IP"
address
from which you are sending your newsletter. This of course makes it
very
difficult to switch ISPs if you are not satisfied with the one you
are
using. A new ISP means a new IP address, and Goodmail will then shut
you
down for "at least 6 months." A nice 'protection' plan for the ISP, but
a
disaster for customers.
Anyway, here is a link to our full press release, which has been sent
to
major publications today. And I want to salute the courage of
the
executives at hosting-only companies that have spoken up and
protested,
knowing full well that they would go out of business in a matter
of
months were their access to AOL and Yahoo mailboxes to be cut off
in
retaliation. In the post-Enron era, this kind of corporate courage
is
very rare indeed. I stand on much firmer ground, as hosting is only
a
side activity at L-Soft, but I can still imagine what must have
gone
through their mind before they hit the send button.
http://www.lsoft.com/news/aol-goodmail.asp
Eric
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