Previous Politech messages: http://www.politechbot.com/2007/02/05/more-on-downsize/ http://www.politechbot.com/2007/02/05/libertarian-group-downsize/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Learning valuable lessons Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 14:50:12 -0500 From: Jim Babka <JimBabka@private> To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@private> Declan, (THIS IS A PUBLIC MESSAGE, AND I HOPE YOU WILL REPUBLISH IT) Thanks so much for posting our account of difficulties with AOL to your email audience. It appears to me that we have benefited in two important ways. First, for the first time someone from AOL called our programmer this morning. This person was helpful and even friendly – so helpful and friendly that they offered their direct, personal contact information to our programmer in case there are any further complications. And according to this person, our problem will be solved by this evening. Did the widespread distribution, particularly by you, of our message lead to this phone call? I think the likelihood that it mattered is quite high. And so, we’re grateful. Second, many people have written you and have since posted on our blog telling us all kinds of things we’re doing wrong and need to address. We’re reading and considering all the feedback we’re getting. Much of it is quite good and helpful. And we appreciate the constructive criticism. Where possible, I intend to make contact with some of those who have written. Some of the commentary wasn’t helpful or specifically relevant. I want to address it, just to make sure the record is clear. We had only two problems. Both were spelled out in the material you distributed. In addition, we just learned this morning that the “comprised script” problem that led to our blacklisting was generated by specifically filed complaints (plural). We did not have a “score” or other technical defect that put us there. AOL has, apparently, concluded that we did address the compromised script issue. And despite what anyone can and did say, common sense would dictate that it is easy to target any group you disagree with by filing a complaint with your ISP or with some service like SpamCop. As a matter of fact we have experience with someone successfully getting us blacklisted for political reasons through SpamCop back in 2004 (or 2005, as I get older, dates are harder to keep track of). A man from New Hampshire simply claimed that we were A) spamming him – that he didn’t sign up for our list – and B) that we refused his repeated requests to be removed. He had in fact signed up for our list, which we were able to demonstrate, and he had never requested additional assistance to unsubscribe (an easy thing to track because we had only two employees at the time). On the other hand, he had written nasty things about us on his website, including the fact that he wished we were shut down and that someone ought to see to that. When we were targeted by this individual back in 04 (or 05), and arrived on other ISP’s blacklists as a result, SpamCop was very responsive and the problem was quickly remedied. What was unusual here was that no one at AOL, until today, seemed ready to work with us. But I never said that AOL was acting in a political fashion in either of the statements I released yesterday. I don’t have specific knowledge of such a conspiracy and would never suggest such a thing without some evidence. Our issue, as I clearly explained, was with AOL’s general method of doing business and it had cost us a lot. Yet I’m glad that I sent out that message to our list yesterday and appreciative of the fact that you picked it up and reported it. We had reached our wits end and didn’t know what else to do. Both quick response by AOL and the technical feedback we’ve received are going to help us address shortcomings and issues that, in some cases, we didn’t even know we had. And that’s a real blessing. Best wishes, Jim Babka, President HYPERLINK "http://www.downsizedc.com/"Downsize DC Foundation & HYPERLINK "http://www.downsizedc.org/"DownsizeDC.org, Inc. Host... The Downsize DC Conference Call Big Governmentcosts you, inconveniences you, and occasionally hurts people you love. But it routinely injures a neighbor, damages your industry, and destroys your community -- it even kills people. We must Downsize DC for Human Progress. _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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