Well, AOL *had* been doing a good job of communicating with postmasters and list managers about mail issues, but it looks like they shot themselves in the foot this time. A couple of hours ago AOL's incoming mail server burped and erroneously rejected all the aol.com addresses on one of my lists -- about 60 addresses or so, with the error message "INCORRECT SEQUENCE OF COMMANDS" in an SMTP transaction. So I forwarded this to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a polite note and inquiry. The response was a form letter saying that AOL had changed its Postmaster procedures -- "We are pleased to announce this change, and look forward to serving the Internet community with increased efficiency and speed" -- that the [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] addresses would no longer accept messages directly, and in case of mailer problems, outside users should consult the Postmaster FAQ at http://hometown.aol.com/postmaster/email.html . Never mind that this is a violation of the RFC; I guess AOL does what it damn well pleases. But to top things off, if you read the FAQ, and scroll down to the question: "8. The ISP that I work for is experiencing unusual difficulties with sending mail to AOL, what should I do? During regular business hours you should send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] However, in an emergency situation, AOL's Network Operations Center can be contacted. Please refer to AOL's whois record for the current contact information. The NOC can be contacted in the event that your site is experiencing unusual difficulties with sending mail to AOL. The NOC should ONLY be contacted by system administrators, technical security and law enforcement issues, and partner community leaders." --- So in other words, the [EMAIL PROTECTED] address has been replaced by a reference to a FAQ that tells you to write to the [EMAIL PROTECTED] address. Good one. As for me, I think I'll call the NOC every time they bounce some mail. Grrrr. Anyone from AOL's operations still on this list? -- Michael C. Berch [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
