North American Network Operators Group
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Re: AOL Mail Problem

  • From: Matthew Black
  • Date: Fri Jul 28 15:23:02 2006 

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 09:28:24 -0700
 chuck goolsbee <[email protected]> wrote:
[original message edited for brevity--m.black]

The fatal flaw in AOL's feedback system is that it is user-generated, and users will classify virtually anything as "spam". It is actually quite entertaining to skim the scomp feed... ecommerce confirmation/shipping notifications, mailing lists they subbed themselves to, personal correspondence(!), etc. I have heard that the AOL mail UI puts the "report as spam" button right next to the "delete" button, which perhaps accounts for the error rate which (at least in our case) exceeds 96%. 


I get the AOL feedback for my university and am also quite
amused what their customers consider as spam:

   - Notification of acceptance of admission to the university
   - Notification of financial aid award
   - Personal replies from campus faculty to students
   - Confirmation of employment application submission

Someone told me that it's probably a careless error when users
make these mistakes. However, my friend has AOL and when I looked
at his client, the Submit Spam menu choice was nowhere near Delete.

I have to agree with a poster who claimed e-mail is as dead as
citizen's band radio. I better plan for alternative employment.

matthew black
california state university, long beach