[Gpdd] ANNOUNCEMENT: Attention AOL Members!

[GPDD Admin]

On or around December 30, AOL once again blocked all e-mail coming from our
host server, causing a massive disabling of accounts (over 190 accounts
were affected). We did a "manual reset" and think we re-enabled all of
them, but there may have been some members that became un-subscribed. If
anyone is in contact with other GPDD members on AOL, please let them know
about this message.

We *know* what the problem is: it is *not* the GPDD. AOL takes it upon
themselves to initiate a block filter on the servers the GPDD uses. We are
unclear *why* this action is taken by AOL, but it seems to happen every so
often. 

There is a way GPDD Members who are AOL subscribers can help: 

The GPDD is published every day. If you do not get more than two issues,
your account may be blocked by AOL. If you get a "your account is disabled"
message from the GPDD, then it is almost certain that your GPDD is being
blocked by AOL. 

If you are reasonably sure that your GPDDs are being blocked, you should
contact AOL and complain: you are paying them for web service, and you have
subscribed to the GPDD: it is *not* spam and it should *not* be blocked.
Try and talk with an AOL supervisor. Be aware of that they will try and
tell you it is your e-mail filter settings. If you have checked and
double-checked your settings (do it before you contact them!), don't let
them fool you - your GPDD is being deleted BY AOL BEFORE IT EVER GETS TO
YOUR AOL ACCOUNT!

The next thing they will tell you is that "the owner of the mailing list or
the  ISP provider should contact AOL to resolve the matter". THIS HAS BEEN
DONE: on or around December 3, 2005 and on or around December 30, 2005 the
hosting service that own the GPDD servers (Hosting Matters) contacted AOL. 

Your reply to AOL is to insist that they UNBLOCK mail to your account from
the server "electra.hmdnsgroup.com" (or put that server on a "whitelist"
for your account) . This is the server that mails the GPDD each day. 

For your own peace of mind, please note that the people at Hosting Matters
(the owners of the Electra server and GPDD's host company) have a strict
anti-spam policy. Any client that sends or relays spam will have their
account revoked immediately, and that they have been fighting spam long
before AOL started losing customers because of it. The GPDD is only sent to
people who subscribe to it, and instructions on how to un-subscribe are at
the top of every issue. All other customers of Hosting Matters are obliged
to follow the same terms of service, so it is *very* unlikely that any
actual spam is being generated from *any* account on that server. 

Last: we again wish to apologize to our Members for these problems; we're
doing what we can to fix them - but sometimes (like with AOL) it's out of
our hands. 

Thanks for your patience, 

The GPDD Team