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List:       list-managers
Subject:    Re: AOL problems
From:       Dave Del Torto <ddt () lsd ! com>
Date:       1995-02-24 2:35:21
Message-ID: v03001618ab72e0ed864e () [192 ! 187 ! 167 ! 52]
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At 7:06 am 2/20/95, Edward J. Branley wrote:
>And, if it persists, many list-owners and system administrators would bar
>that sight from a list until the site became responsive. IMO, that's where
>AOL is headed if their poor attitude continues.

Personally, I think that every list-manager who is having, or has had,
serious responsivity and/or customer trouble with AOL (or _any_ commercial
service) should treat them like every other nasty problem site and
temporarily refuse all subscriptions from them until the upper eschelon at
AOL gets the message. Make sure to include something in the autoreply to
AOL/CIS/etc users that they should contact their OWN system administrators
(include the addresses for them as they rarely understand the difference)
regarding their own system's policies that have resulted in the refusal of
service. If a lot of net.managers did this in tandem, it would elicit a
response from AOL very quickly: it's in their interest to not go on
offending people (they're in the middle of building concensus that AOL is a
great thing - do they need bad press?). I say this as an AOL member as well
as a sometime list-manager. I have this gut-level feeling that to allow
continued and increasing abuse of net.resources by (possibly) unsuspecting
AOL members is bad for two reasons:

1. Serious resentment continues to builds among net.citizens and list-mgrs.

2. AOL develops a de facto "Microsoft-style 900-pound gorilla presence on
   the net and at some point it no longer becomes an _option_ to switch
   them off in protest or for any other egregious reasons.

Let's face it: it's not _that_ difficult to get true IP connectivity for
most people, and if an AOLer _really_ wants an NNTP feed, s/he can always
buy it from a true ISP.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind... I'm about to start another
list, and will definitely be denying AOL subs until further notice: I don't
lack sympathy for commercial service subscribers, I just don't have the
bandwidth to waste while I volunteer my time/effort.

   dave
_______________________________________________________________
"War is good for Business."   -Ferengi 34th Rule of Acquisition
"Peace is good for Business." -Ferengi 35th Rule of Acquisition



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