[BC] June!

[Barry Mishkind]

Well, June is here, even if the GM we knew isn't.

Thanks for being part of the BROADCAST community.

As everyone knows, the industry is in flux ... and the pain is not 
yet over. There is greater need than ever to share our resources and 
help one another get the job done. For those of you who contribute 
your thoughts and experience, to share them with the engineering 
community, we offer sincere thanks. To those of you who read the list 
and rarely post, we offer encouragement. Let us hear from you ... and 
what is going on at your location. Even a quick "I'm still breathing" 
once in a while is good - so we know!

A brief note on email.

It seems every time someone has a problem with email, a lot of 
huffing and puffing goes on.

A lot of email does not get to its destination. A fair amount of the 
problem is caused by the protections ISPs put into place due to spam.

Last month, we finally managed to install a filter to prevent the 
word "spam" from getting on the subject line. The main reason is that 
'bot armies continue to grow and ISP filters are tagging more and 
more emails with the warning.  Given that some of the same filters 
block email with the word "spam" in the subject, it becomes a major 
problem.  I think that we have solved about 95% of this issue.

However, we are aware there are still some bizarre cases of ISP filtering.

There are blackholes and filters that affect you without your knowing 
it. (For example, if some kid on the same IP "node" or block" as you 
starts spamming, or someone has an "infected" machine spewing as a 
'bot', YOU will have trouble getting email out. This isn't fair. But 
it is what is happening.)  This is why it is just basic email 
courtesy to acknowledge incoming email, even if it is to say "I'm 
busy, I might answer later."  And, it is why, if you don't get an 
acknowledgement, it is wise to resend, perhaps from a different 
account - a different ISP if possible. (Many keep a spare account on 
gmail, for example, for this reason)

Google's gmail GENERALLY has a good reputation. But even they 
periodically get someone signing up and sending spam on an account. 
Or, someone on AOL "marks" good email as spam, as they are unwilling 
to unsub from a mailing list they signed up to get. (!)  Either way, 
even Google - or any other ISP - can be "tagged" once in a while.

It is important to know that. You are not being targeted 
specifically. It is, as I said, what is happening.

Spam is a terrible thing.  It is worse than the stuff in the postbox, 
since we pay for it - in tiny amounts - to support the system that 
delivers it.  However, it shouldn't raise our blood pressure. Just 
"delete" and move on.

If you are "caught" in that your posts do not make it to us and you 
think it could be a spam filter issue, please feel free to use the 
workaround  00002 at spam-o-matic.com      I was hoping that this would 
have been renamed to "broadcast at spam-o-matic.com"  - and perhaps it 
will happen before too long - but this will get you past virtually 
any ISP filter... except your own. <g>

If you find that this solves your situation, please do let me know. 
We plan further adjustments to make posting easier and more reliable.

Again .. my sincere thanks to everyone, and especially all who 
participate on the list.

barry