Plus Edition Subscribers: Please Read. I Give Up!

NOTE: This is a repeat of an article I published about a year and a half ago. It seems that spam filters are even more of a problem today than they were last year. I frequently receive messages from Plus Edition subscribers stating that they have not received the newsletters. However, it seems that the newsletters were always sent, only to be deleted by spam filters at the receiving mail server.

For the past couple of years, I have spent eight to ten hours per week writing e-mail messages about problems with spam filters. I suspect that some of you are tired of reading my messages and articles about this problem.

In short, after spending thousands of dollars on bulk mail servers and after consulting with various industry experts, I must conclude that there is no way to guarantee e-mail delivery to 100% of the Plus Edition subscribers. Therefore, I provide the Plus Edition newsletter online at http://plus.eogn.com. You can always read the online version, regardless of what your e-mail provider does to your in-box.

I also guarantee that I will SEND the Plus Edition newsletter to every subscriber's e-mail address every week. Notice that I wrote that I guarantee that I will SEND it. That is not a guarantee that you will RECEIVE it as that is beyond my control.

Details:

I send an e-mail version of the Plus Edition newsletter every week to every Plus Edition subscriber. Each e-mail message always leaves the bulk mail server I use. Each e-mail message always gets delivered to the mail servers of the recipients' e-mail providers. I can see this time and time again in the mail server log files. There is NEVER a missed subscriber in the sending.

Based on feedback received, however, I believe that 5% to 10% of those newsletters never get delivered. This 5% to 10% get blocked by spam filters in the receiving mail servers.

I have consulted with several "industry experts" and with the tech support departments of two major (expensive) bulk mail services. The people who are the most experienced with sending large amounts of e-mail tell me that my 90% to 95% delivery rates are higher than most of theirs! Nobody ever achieves 100% delivery, and some people are satisfied with a 50% delivery rate.

In short, e-mail has now regressed back to the level of old-fashioned "snail mail." I can take a letter to the post office, I can paste a stamp on it and I can place it in the mail slot there, hoping for delivery. However, I cannot guarantee delivery. That is beyond my control; the postal service employees are the only ones who can make that happen. After I place the letter in the mail slot, I am no longer able to make guarantees. I cannot even see what the postal employees are doing with the letter. An errant postal employee might even throw my letter in the trash.

E-mail is now the same. I can guarantee that I will send the message out of the mail server I use and I can even guarantee that it will be delivered to the receiving mail server. I can see all that in the log files and I know that it works 100% of the time. After the e-mail message is delivered to the receiving mail server, I can no longer see what happens. Indeed, that mail server may send the e-mail message to the trash.

Sadly, spam filters in the mail servers often trash legitimate e-mail messages, especially larger messages such as my newsletter. Deletion of a legitimate message is called a "false positive" Indeed, it looks like that happens 5% to 10% of the time for my newsletter, even more often for some other bulk mailers.

I give up. Starting now:

I am guaranteeing that Plus Edition subscribers can always read the current edition and the two previous editions online on the newsletter's web site at any time. Go to http://www.eogn.com and click on "Read the Plus Edition Newsletter (user name and password required)." That will always work.

I am guaranteeing that I will send the Plus Edition newsletter by e-mail to every subscriber every week.

Note: I am saying, "I am guaranteeing that I will send it;" but, I am not guaranteeing that you will receive it. Receiving the newsletter is not under my control. I can only control the sending.

If you do not receive the e-mail version, please contact your e-mail provider for assistance. They are the only ones who can tell you why you did not receive it. Most of the time, the answer will be "blocked by spam filters." However, you need to contact your e-mail provider to make sure.

Thank you.

- Dick Eastman

Comments

[M. Diane Rogers]

I did get mine, Dick. Thanks. Sorry this is so much work now, but I do appreciate the time you take to produce and send the newsletter out to us all.
Best wishes from British Columbia!

[Nancy Fennessey]

Dick, I always get your newsletter but I also have it listed in my address book so it is not seen as spam

Nancy in Lynn, MA

[Kathy Amoroso]

It always amazes me that people expect computers and email to work perfectly (those people that complain that their computers or email don't work). It doesn't. That's the world of computers. If people would lower their expectations, things would be fine. :) At least you still make it accessible on the web. That's about all you can do now. It's like spam, if we are only getting 5 spam emails a day, that's wonderful! We will never be spam-free. I too am about to give up.

[Edward Fields]

I too have had sporadic Plus Newsletter deliveries, nothing in Oct, only one in the first week of Sept, and wonder of wonders both so far this month, November.

I once made the mistake of sending a message to a mailing list for an organization that I and the recipients belong. The result is that yahoo.com has decided that I am a spammer and I cannot send email to 'anyone' today that has a yahoo address. I have gone the remediation route on their web site to no avail. So the heck with them, I just boycott all things yahoo If I can :-(

[Hal Whitmore]

I haven't had any problem, but I did note that this week's plus edition arrived this morning instead of Sunday. (I say "this morning." I put my Mac to sleep about 12:30 AM EST Tuesday morning and just woke it up at 9:30 AM, when I got this message and Sunday's plus edition.)

Hal

[Lorraine Eachus]

I always get mine but if this eliminate the complaints that you get, I'm all for it. Just as easy to follow a URL as get it in my inbox. Hopefully you can quit fighting this battle once and for all.

[Donna Bray]

I have CA security suite provided free with Roadrunner (Time Warner Co.) CA gives me a chance to review "spam" or blocked emails before they are trashed.

However, I have always gotten the Eastman newsletters. Thanks

[Mary]

I am not even receiving ALL of the free editions. I discovered that recently when I looked at the "Recent Articles" section and saw articles I had never seen before.

Also, I had a real problem registering for the Discussion Forum. I didn't receive the email confirmation, so started over and it kept telling me that someone was already registered with that name and email address. I called my provider and they said that if it wasn't even in my spam mail, then THEY never received it. I finally used another email address (which I don't use because I hate the format), and it went through with no problem.

That makes me wonder if others are having problems registering for the Discussion Forum and are just simply giving up.

This is not intended as a complaint, but only to relate what is happening.

Mary

[John]

If your readers would use ChoiceMail One from Digiportal.com, it would solve this problem and all the others they might have with spam. It's a permission-based program and a one-time purchase. I have used it for years and never have spam problems. A useful feature is the ability (if you are curious) to look at the messages blocked, read them and to accept any you wish.

[tajicat]

I have had issues with Yahoo blocking newsletters in the past. I add them to my address book and still won't receive them. A friend suggested I try getting a Gmail account and now I receive the newsletters that I couldn't get through Yahoo, without any problems. I have a paid Yahoo account or I would switch. Gmail is free and can handle larger attachments too. :)

[Linda M.]

Using a feed reader could be a solution for people having a problem receiving the e-mail newsletter. I have been using Google Reader for several months now and don't know how I got along without it. I can see, at a glance, when new content has been posted to any of my favorite blogs. I actually didn't even realize until I read this article that I have only been sporadically receiving the plus edition e-mail newsletter. Since I access the articles through Google Reader as they are posted, not receiving the e-mail isn't a problem.

[Dick Eastman]

---> I finally used another email address [...], and it went through with no problem.

Exactly. Many others have had the same experience. That proves that the problem is in the receiving mail server.

All the messages are being sent by the originating server. The only difference is the address to which they are sent which means they go to different mail servers. Some of the receiving mail servers obviously let the messages through while others do not.

- Dick Eastman

[Timothy Eastman]

Some ISP's block all e-mails coming from certain bulk e-mail providers for infringement of ISP rules and/or sending spam with viruses to control PC's.
McColo Corp, a US-based bulk e-mail server was shut down a week ago (after over a year of trying) by the FBI because of excessive spamming in conjunct with possibly millions of virus-infected computers that were 'hijacked' to send the spam as 'botnets'. McColo was found to have knowlege of and of using these hijacked PC's to send billions of e-mails daily.
Spam messages ran around 150 billion per day until McColo was shut down and then went down to around 64 billion.
Within a few days, McColo was back online using a server in Sweden. Sweden soon withdrew the server from them after learning from their security researchers of the investigation. I'm sure they will eventually find a server in some country that would like to spam US & EU computers.
Spam is back to over 71 billion messages per day.
IronPort is the leader of e-mail security, and a part of Cisco, can be found at www.ironport.com with knowlege base articles.
For sending a few hundred e-mails, a PC can sent them out easily with the proper software. For thousands of e-mails, a larger server is necessary. Finding an ethical bulk e-mailer who verifies every message and scans them for viruses is a difficult task.

[Bev K.]

Dick,

I get all the issues. I use Earthlink and Thunderbird and have never had a problem. Thank you for all you do.

Bev

[Jim Raehl]

I was using GoDaddy for Email, until I found out it was blocking AMSAT (amateur radio satellite organization). GoDaddy techs claimed it was an AMSAT configuration problem. I switched to my own domain at 1and1.com. No more blocked Email problems. Plus, I can allocate each sender its own Email address (eg, eastman@raehl?.us). I get all Eastman newsletters, for which effort I am very grateful.

[Frank Henderson]

A year or so ago you wrote an article about using Gmail as a spam catcher. I've set it up on all my computers and it works like a charm. I've never missed an issue and if I did I could either visit your website or go to Gmail and check my spam for it.

[Linda Miller]

I have always received my e-mail copy of the Plus edition up until about 4 months ago without any problem. All of a sudden the newsletter stopped coming. Please, please retry to send it to me. It would be most appreciated. I don't know why it stopped as I have made absolutely no changes to my service, e-mail address or anything. Thank you for your assistance as I hate missing your newsletter.

[Dick Eastman]

Hi Linda,

I just checked and found that your subscription is up to date. The Plus Edition newsletter has been mailed to you every week since you subscribed on 1 May 2007. It is usually mailed on Sunday evenings although occasionally on Mondays. Your experience is very typical of what I wrote about in the above article.

Hotmail subscribers report that they often find the Plus Edition newsletters in their spam folders.

Don't forget that you can ALWAYS read the latest Plus Edition newsletter as well as the two previous editions at any time, regardless of what Hotmail does to your in-box. You can do so by going to http://www.eogn.com and clicking on "Read the Plus Edition Newsletter or Renew Your Plus Edition Subscription (e-mail address and password required)."

A more direct route to the same place would be http://plus.eogn.com

Thanks.

- Dick Eastman

[Marcie Guise]

After years of receiving the Plus edition at my Yahoo address I now find it not coming. Would you please resend. If it does not appear am going to changed addresses.

Thank you

[Dick Eastman]

---> After years of receiving the Plus edition at my Yahoo address I now find it not coming.

The only people who can fix that are the Yahoo employees.

Don't forget that you can ALWAYS read the latest Plus Edition newsletter and the two previous editions at any time. To do so, go to most any page on this web site and click on "Read the Plus Edition Newsletter or Renew Your Plus Edition Subscription (e-mail address and password required)" in the menus to the right. That always works, regardless of what your e-mail provider does to your in-box.

- Dick Eastman