EMAIL ISSUES
------TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEW POLICY WITH RESPECT TO EMAIL ADDRESSES
A NECESSARY EMAIL SETTING
WHY OUR EMAILS POSSIBLY ARRIVED LATE OR NOT AT ALL
STOP USING YAHOO, NETZERO, AND JUNO EMAIL PROVIDERS ------
NEW POLICY WITH RESPECT TO EMAIL ADDRESSES:
There are two important issues here. FIRST, members must not supply CFIC with their company email addresses. That is, companies that they work for. (If you own the company, that's different.) All email on a company's server can be read by any supervisor. All it takes is one pro vaccine activist to get hold of our mobilization alerts to throw a monkey wrench in all of our efforts. Thus, do not supply me with a company email address. We can help you get an alternative to that if necesary.
SECONDLY, CFIC needs members' email addresses to supply important information to mobilize parents to do things that advances our goal to enact our legislative reforms of the exemptions from vaccination. That has always been CFIC's sole agenda. CFIC has been able to keep the membership fee to zero because we don't communicate via snail mail. But people change their addresses frequently and forget to update CFIC. When this happens over the years, that member is essentually blind and deaf to us, and is no longer of any value to the coalition---your fellow parents.
Therefore, it warrants me to require that members supply CFIC with their most permanent email account. That means the email address of the company in which you are paying a monthly fee for internet access, be it broadband or dialup service. That would be, for example, [email protected], or [email protected]. or [email protected], or [email protected], etc. (The internet service provider that you pay for each month bundles email service along with your internet access service.) If you have non-free accounts like these, then please DO NOT supply me with a free email address such as Hotmail, or Yahoo, or gmail, etc. Because these types of accounts are more frequently changed or discarded, and are more likely to place restrictions or other inconveniences for users.
If you happen to prefer the online webmail user interface of your free email account, OVER the webmail user interface of your non-free account that you have, then that's only because you don't know that you can install your own email client (i.e. program) on your computer and with it, have total control of the management of your email---and do so with far greater speed and features than by using any online webmail interfaces---even the popular free Yahoo email interface (read more about Yahoo in the next section).
There are many email programs available to computer users. Some are free. I recommend Courier Email Client. It is easy to use yet powerful. Just go to the Rose City Software link below, and download and install the program. http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/courier/
You'll just need to enter the correct "mail server name" in the account properties, in order to interface the Courier program with your ISP's email server. (you can get that info from your ISP's website---the one you pay a monthly fee to. Note: Not all free email accounts will permit you to use your own email client.) Also, if you happen to select Courier as your email program, then you will be using "IMAP", and not "POP", as your interfacing method. But either way, you'll now be in total control of your email, and be able to work faster! (Courier had full drag and drop functionality with Windows Explorer, and any other desktop file manager. And it has a very powerful email filtering system.)
Another advantage of using an email client like Courier installed on your computer is that it enables you to effectively manage all of your email from different accounts. For example, I have a gmail (from Google) account, and I set the gmail preference settings to forward all inbound mail to my primary account at NYCT, which in turn is downloaded to my Courier email program.
I realize that Fedora's Thunderbird is a more popular alternative to Microsoft's Outlook. It's OK to use it. But just bear in mind that by being popular, a software program is more likely a target for black hat hackers. So if you want to continually track Fedora announcements of security vulnerabilities for Thunderbird at Secunia.com-- -and patches for them---be my guest.
AN IMPORTANT EMAIL SETTING
Sometimes I get an email from someone in which the text appears compressed, with no extra spaces and line feeds. Other times such a message appears to be blank. The reason this happens is because the sender had composed the email message in html language.
But it is unnecessary to compose simple email messages in that fancy language. And most people like me set our defaults to receive messages in plain text only, because it's a security measure (html embedded links can cause problems). Fortunately, I can toggle to html mode to view these messages, but only if I diagnose the problem. But many people who receive your emails may not know this stuff and just delete your messages, assuming it was blank or an error.
THEREFORE, I recommend that you set your defaults to compose messages in plain text in your email client or webmail interface.
If you use hotmail for example, look for this setting: “When sending messages in HTML format and one or more recipients are not listed as being able to receive HTML”
Then for that entry, you select this command: "Convert the message to plain text."
Just remember that weird things happen when you send email messages in anything but plain simple text mode.
WHY OUR EMAILS POSSIBLY ARRIVED LATE OR NOT AT ALL
There are 2 basic reasons why you may not have received the aforementioned email package. PLEASE read the following BEFORE calling me to inquire about why you didn't get my email. Especially if you use a YAHOO email account.
Reason 1: Low available room in your email box.
Consider CFIC's introductory email package that consists of 5 emails: email #1 = 4 kb email #2 = 60 kb email #3 = 1500 kb (1.5 MB) email #4 = 7800 kb (7.8 MB) email #5 = 900 kb (0.9 MB)
Many email accounts these days permit you to store up to a gigabyte of mail, with a 10 MB ceiling per email. But many do not, and regardless, whatever amount you're given can ultimately be used up over time. So the information I sent to you may be blocked for lack of available space. The solutions may be to manually clear out unneeded or old emails you're storing in that email account, or to open another email account. (see help on that below.)
ALSO, some webmail services and ISPs (ISP="internet service provider") restrict you to less than 10 MB for each email you can send or receive. Netzero and Juno are such examples. If you cannot find a way around that, you must obtain another email account. See further down to learn how easy that is.
Some webmail servers provide users with an interface to enable them to control how much or how long inbound spam may accumulate in their spam folder. Or they let you set controls on the level of aggressiveness that the ISP will screen (for spam) inbound mail. I recommend that you set all your anti-spam controls to keep the amount that builds up to a minimum. Let's face it, if you're too lazy to review the mail in your spam box every 2 days, you're not likely going to check it every 5 days. So set your controls to automatically delete the suspect mail every 1-2 days.
2 Reason 2: Anti-Spam Policies and Controls.
"Spam" is unsolicited junkmail or malware. The second most common reason you may not receive CFIC email alerts is due to the anti-spam policies of your ISP or your email client.
(a) Measures Under Your Control:
People who manage their email using a program ("client") resident on their computer usually have program controls that can filter out spam in different ways. What they may not realize is that they also have the same powers to control where inbound mail ends up as people who use webmail interfaces, like aol or gmail. (a webmail interface is simply the proprietary webpage you browse to when you want to read your email.)
Therefore, everyone who has email service can perform the following tasks to ensure that my emails get to them:
FIRST, Place "[email protected]" on your white list. A "whitelist" is simply the filter setting you use to unconditionally direct an email towards your inbox. You can set the filter for different email characteristics to look for, including the email source (ie, my email address). These links help their readers with their "whitelist" settings for whatever ISP or email client they're using. It should help you to place [email protected] on your white list: http://www.bizweb2000.com/PrivateCoaching/EmailWhiteList/cms/whiteList.html http://www.hypnosisonline.com.au/cmsi/EmailWhiteList/cms/whiteList.html
SECOND, make sure that the white list setting (above) overrides any possible global controls that you may have set up to block certain emails, such as emails with file attachments, or emails that are above a threshold size limit. If it doesn't override any such global restrictions, then ease the restrictions. Unless you're requesting a book from CFIC's booklist, CFIC will not likely send to you an email greater than 1-2 MB.
THIRD, Always check your settings by sending an email to yourself. You can actually do this. Just compose a message, attach a file to the message (say, between 300 to 900 KB in size), then hit "send". If the email winds up in your spam folder, then you need to troubleshoot the problem. Call Gary Krasner for help. Because if you don't resolve the problem, you won't have this organization working on your behalf.
(b) Measures Not In Your Control:
There are some things that you cannot adjust or fix. The only solution is to obtain another email address from another ISP. If you do not wish to read the remainder of this subsection, then here is the summation:
If you use a Yahoo, Juno, or Netscape account, then you must look for another email account. Try a Gmail account from Google, or select from hundreds of free accounts at www.emailaddresses.com. [SEE NEXT SECTION]
STOP USING YAHOO, NETZERO, AND JUNO EMAIL PROVIDERS
The amount of spam that people are receiving is increasing so much, that ISPs have been forced to implement extreme measures to block such mail from getting to you. Unfortunately, there are some methods that some ISPs use which denies you any control in the process, and consequently denies you important emails.
I'm referring to "graylisting" and "blacklisting". Everyone who uses email has a unique IP address. If your IP address rightly or wrongly lands on one of these lists, then the ISP that uses that list will totally block all of your emails (blacklisting), or filter it in ways that will make it unlikely to be read by the recipient (graylisting).
Yahoo is a notorious graymailer since December 2006. As I mentioned above, Juno and Netzero seems to prevent their customers from receiving emails that are approx. over 3-5 MB. Certainly below that industry standard minimum of 10 MB.
In the past, there have also been various kinds of problems that have erupted from time to time for users of Hotmail and MSN as well.
These sorts of obstacles are not resolved by placing me ([email protected]) on your "white list." See the "solution" section a few paragraphs down to learn which webmail services present little or no problems of this nature. CFIC cannot accept email addresses from Yahoo, Juno, and Netzero as long as these policies persist.
3 The Mother of All Graymailers - Yahoo:
YAHOO mail is one such example. Based on my experience and testing, since 2007, YAHOO has intermittantly engaged in a process known in the industry as "graymailing". (Graymailing is not legal, but many ISPs employ it.) I seem to have been placed on Yahoo's graymail list periodically.
If you have a YAHOO account, for example, and YAHOO deems that an inbound email to you may be spam--- whether it actually is or not---then that email will either be blocked, or else its delivery to you will be delayed for at least 8 hours. As you will read below, most people placed on Yahoo's graymail list are just people who just send an email to a handful of friends. And you'll learn that the reason Yahoo does this is because Yahoo has a proprietary interest in Yahoo Groups.
I learned later that many other email users and companies have discovered Yahoo's graylisting: http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/yahoos-greylist-gets-grey-area-429 http://www.ahfx.net/weblog.php?article=107 http://notes.kateva.org/2006/12/aol-and-yahoo-email-down-tubes.html http://luciddesign.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/xtra-and-yahoo-causing-major-problems-with-email-in-new- zealand/ http://forums.rapidvps.com/showthread.php?t=995 http://blog.wordtothewise.com/2007/11/greylisting-that-which-yahoo-does-not-do/ http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=147982
How does YAHOO determine what might be spam?
One method may be through an independently published blacklist that's distributed throughout the industry. This list might contain individual email addresses, but it usually contains IP addresses, that have been identified as the source of spam. Unfortunately, any innocent person can end up on that list. For example, spammers can be sharing the same IP address as you, or they may have stolen your IP address (by hiding behind a proxy server) and use it while spamming.
Another method is YAHOO itself making the determination. I can't claim to know the exact calculation YAHOO uses, but it appears to involve at least two factors: YAHOO considers an inbound email may be spam if, (1) it is addressed to more than one recipient (other than the YAHOO recipient), and/or (2) it contains file attachments.
When YAHOO identifies an email address or IP address as a possible or probable spammer, then it may do one or two things with email coming from that source: it will delay the delivery of the email to you, and/or divert the email to your YAHOO "BULK" email folder. (When you're logged into Yahoo's online popmail client, the icon for the BULK email folder is displayed on the left-hand side of your screen, a few rows down from the INBOX folder.)
After Yahoo designates your IP address to be a spammer, then in the future, ANY email message that you send to a Yahoo recipient will be delayed---even if the message contains no file attachments, and is addressed solely to that Yahoo recipient. For example, when I send a plain email message to a YAHOO account holder, about 8 hours later I receive an email alert from my ISP informing me that a completed delivery of the email is still pending. Here's the pertinent portion of that alert:
QUOTE ----- Transcript of session follows -----
Why Does Yahoo Have This Restrictive Policy?
Most other ISPs allow you to be the recipient of bulk mail. If the mass mailing is of the nature of spam---which is unwelcome mail---then the ISP provides the user with tools to filter that spam away from of your "in" box. The reason YAHOO denies you that freedom is because it has a huge financial stake in YAHOO Groups---the system in which subscribers can communicate as a group with each other. Thus, sending an email to a handful of your friends obviates the need to join these discussion boards that YAHOO provides. In other words, YAHOO wishes to monopolize email communication among more than two people.
4 What Can YOU Do About This Problem?
It is critical for potential members, and current members of CFIC to receive my email alerts and information in a timely manner. And since I send out both types of emails---ones that are addressed to multiple parties, and ones which contain file attachments---keeping your YAHOO account can present a problem for us.
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM:
My overall recommendation is to stop using YAHOO. Same thing with Juno and Netzero, if you cannot overcome the email size restrictions. Staying with them is not worth the time and aggravation, and you may miss getting important mail from other people you know.
You'll find free email providers there that are not so restrictive in the tools it provides users to control spam. A good email provider is GMAIL, for example (go to Google.com, then click on the "gmail" link in the upper left corner of the screen). AOL is also good, and it's now free.
A newcomer to the webmail scene with impressive IMAP and POP3 features is GMX. Sign up here: http://www.gmx.com/ Or read this review first: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Hotmail-Yahoo-and-Gmail-Out-Webmailed-by-GMX- 109936.shtml ONE PROBLEM THOUGH: You cannot compose messages in plain text. See why this is a problem in the section above labeled, "AN IMPORTANT EMAIL SETTING". However, it is still handy to keep a GMX account, in case you need a 5 GB inbox, or if you need to send and email file attachment just under 50 MB!
After you subscribe to another email account, please furnish me with your new email address.
Other free email accounts are located at www.emailaddresses.com. Or just Google for "free email service" or "free ISPs". It's a good opportunity to choose an ISP with a good reputation and good service. Try Googling for "ISPs ranked", or "ISPs evaluated", or "ISPs rated", or "ISPs compared", or "ISPs reviewed". Or even, "the best ISPs". You get the idea.
The simplest way to check that you have an ISP which doesn't restrict messages from legitimate sources (i.e. known and CONFIRMED spammers), is to just email a message to yourself. make sure to attach a 2-5 MB file to the message. If you don't receive the message you sent to yourself within 30 minutes, then you know that there's a problem. It might be that your anti-spam filters are set too restrictively. Or it may be that you ISP has blocked or delayed the inbound message. If they don't provide a customer support line, then drop the service and find another at www.emailaddresses.com.
HOWEVER, if you REALLY must keep your YAHOO account for some reason, then you must carefully monitor your BULK email folder. As soon as you see my email arrive in it, click on the email to display it. When the next screen appears, click on the button that reads "NOT SPAM". Then check the box that will move the message into your INBOX. Yahoo claims that this will permit my future messages to enter your INBOX. But my tests have NOT shown this to be true. And like I said, all kinds of mail that I send to YAHOO recipients is being delayed now.
But do try to drop YAHOO eventually, and open another email account. The problems are just too great: Like I said, any emails that you succeed in getting from me will be at least 8 hours AFTER I sent them. Another problem with restoring mail from your BULK email folder is that YAHOO doesn't retain the mail in your BULK folder for the specified period of time. I've often seen mail disappear before the specified time was up.
These circumstances are unacceptable, and you cannot remain a viable member of this coalition if I send out mobilization alerts and hundreds of YAHOO account-holders don't receive them, or receives them 12 hours later---because YAHOO assumes it's spam. So please consider opening an email account with another ISP.
BY THE WAY
I believe my ISP has a server-wide (i.e. mandatory; can't be changed) spam filter setting that will discard YOUR email (addressed to me) into my online spam folder (and will be automatically deleted 4 days later) if YOUR email contains a file attachment, AND is sent to me: 1 - Without text in the subject line, OR 2 - Without text in the body of the email.
5 MORE ABOUT YAHOO:
In case you haven't heard, YAHOO was responsible for supplying information to the Chinese secret police that led to the arrest and 10 year sentence of a pro-democracy Chinese journalist. YAHOO then tried to conceal that information from Congress (see the following links:) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/technology/07yahoo.html?ref=worldbusiness http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-07-voa5.cfm http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/relatives-of-ch.html http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/16/yahoo.congress/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/06/AR2007110602199.html?hpid=news-col- blog
Also, YAHOO is a 40% owner of Alibaba, a Chinese company that trades in shark fins and contributes to the senseless and agonizing deaths of sharks worldwide. An astounding 90% of the world’s shark populations have already been decimated, in large part due to shark finning. The balance of the world’s oceans is being destroyed because of the removal of these important predators. The movie, "Sharkwater" is an indictment of shark-finning, which is a practice that Yahoo profits from. The movie contains graphic and disturbing footage of sharks having their fins cut off while still alive and then being thrown back into the ocean to die. Yahoo should be ashamed for supporting this brutal, criminal, and ecologically disastrous practice. (See links for more info:) http://www.wildlifeextra.com/alibaba-sharkfin912.html http://www.celsias.com/2007/10/28/alibaba-com-and-yahoo-back-shark-fin-traders/ http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/campaigns/alibaba.htm
--- END ---
©2003 by Gary Krasner
6