Back at the end of 2005, we had an email from our ISP fellow. Seemed that aol was reporting us for spamming. One of their people said that we were sending unwanted emails. I did explain that our list was comprised only of people who had signed up to received the weekly email. So, I was given the email address and promptly removed it. 

Then about February of this year, our ISP contacts us again saying that aol had a bunch of emails to one person who were not wanted. BUT they would not furnish the email address. It would mean that we'd have to take off ALL aol subscribers. That would not have fixed the problem completely.

As we were taking off the set up for signups, I watched as a person on their computer signed up over and over and over again. There was nothing I could do to make them stop. On their end, it would appear that I was spamming them, sending 8 emails, all the same, all spam. I didn't put them on any list but they received an automatic confirmation for each time. To start a list again, we'd need a better method. So for now, there is no list that I acknowledge exists. 

If you've tried to send or receive messages from aol or Yahoo folks, you already know that the system is unreliable. We have enough problems with our own ISP and pay a premium for their services. Yahoo is well known for their groups sponsoring porn, adult and child. When I forward the porn on to the Secret Service email address, I can see what addresses are on the message. The folks may not realize they are being given credit for the porn but they are. Yahoo has long lured in fine folks for creating free groups (bulletin boards) and all they had to do was stay within limits set and use the advertising provided. Many are decent and tend to cover subjects like gardening, home and family. If you visit or just send an email to a Yahoo address, you automatically get unwanted spam in large volumes. They will occasionally allow their members to get messages from those not inside the Yahoo group but they are few and we soon learn not to try very often.

I had signed up for Lion Brand Yarn's email newsletter. Suddenly, they announced that they were offering their newsletter under Yahoo's new program. I wouldn't since it involved getting a Yahoo account (address). Then it became clear that I could no longer access any of the free patterns unless I did as they required. Okay, I tried to unsubscribe. The automated system told me that I still had to register just to unsubscribe. Not me. So this last newsletter mentions that one could now reply with unsubscribe on the subject and I did. That brought on a double dose of spam. And it's not just plain spam, it's virus messages and those stupid Instant Messengers that pop up in the middle of the screen and make everything cease until you address their stupid dialog full of lies about how sick my computer is with viruses and corrupt files. They have found a way around the firewall but at least it slows them down from 3 dozen a day to about 6 a day.

So many years ago, one of the first email newsletters I subscribed to was Mobile Home Repair. com and I was not really surprised to get an email for them explaining how they'd been without their newsletter for almost a year. They'd received the same treatment as we did and had to hire the sending out of their messages. They only send 4 times a year so I guess they could afford it. We are a weekly updated site. We can't afford that. We should have been able to do that on our own, but not now days. 

As soon as our ISP cut off our ability to send out the mailing list, we started getting emails from people saying that they would be glad to send out our list for us. For a price and they would even send it to their list, no subscribers needed. We could be worldwide. (We already are). There were about a dozen different addresses making the same offer and were all "off shore or overseas." Our ISP gave us a dozen addresses saying that would work but they did not. They lie without remorse or hesitation.

I am sure most aol and Yahoo members have no idea what their ISP is doing. That is sad for them but I don't believe most of them have a clue. The big companies now own MSN and Hotmail among others. wmconnect (Wal-Mart) was part of aol but they have now been dissolved. Do any of these members know what their service is doing? I doubt it.