PLEASE READ: ApexSpeed.com and AOL users

[dc]

While AOL has been around for what seems like forever, they still continue to be a terrible service and web browsing provider. There have been a few issues with AOL users here on ApexSpeed in the last couple of months, that we need to make note of.

This morning, for the 4th time in recent memory, we (our host provider) received a lightly threatening form e-mail alerting us that we have been sending out unsolicited spam and junkmail to AOL users, and if this continues, they would take steps to block ApexSpeed.com from their e-mail servers. We have NEVER sent out unsolicited e-mails to users and we never will.

The problem seems to be AOL's SPAM and Junkmail blockers and warning system. When you request your password or have your user account on ApexSpeed send you automatic e-mails when someone sends you a PM or posts to a thread you are participating in, DO NOT MARK OR REPORT THAT E-MAIL AS SPAM. Every time you do, AOL considers our domain as a source of spam, and they are threatening to block AOL users (YOU) from receiving ApexSpeed information.

Some tips for AOL users:

1) DO NOT use the "SPAM" button to trash or deleted all of your e-mail messages. That reports all of that mail you marked as spam to AOL and includes your password retrieval e-mail in that lot. Baby with the bathwater kinda thing.

2) Pay attention when you are trashing old e-mail. Some AOL interfaces have the SPAM and TRASH buttons right next to each other, for some reason.

3) AOL filters incoming messages automatically to AOL users SPAM folders, and unless the AOL user (YOU) looks in that folder and marks that message as "Not spam" it will eventually be reported.


Besides the above possibilities, make sure you have "info@apexspeed.com" in your Address book and occasionally check your spam folder for any messages from "*@apexspeed.com." If one is found, make sure you mark it as Not SPAM.





Every time you send e-mail from us to the SPAM folder to AOL, they collect, document and report these to our host provider. Should this continue, it is very possible that AOL will potentially block ALL AOL users from ApexSpeed.com, which none of us want.

The best solution is to join the 21st Century and use a real e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook, Entourage or Mozilla Firebird, or a free online e-mail provider like Gmail, plus a contemporary browser like Mozilla FireFox or Internet Explorer (both of which are free and monumentally better than the stock AOL software). And if I am suggestion to anyone that they use Microsoft products, you know AOL's stuff must be garbage.




Please make sure that if you are using AOL for e-mail and web browsing, that you pay attention a bit to the default settings that filter everything out for you.




doug

[dc]

I'm going to bump this today, because we seem to be having these problems again, and more often. If you receive thread or PM update e-mails and mark them as SPAM through AOL, you are reporting ApexSpeed.com as a contributing domain of internet junkmail. This may not seem like much to you, but AOL's practice is to put repeat offenders on a BLACKLIST that will keep any e-mail from *@apexspeed.com from getting to any *@aol.com e-mail user. This includes our personal and business contacts, as well.

From this point on, any AOL.com users/offenders of this will be automatically removed from all ApexSpeed e-mail alerts, including any contact through this site. This includes PM notifications, e-mails, thread updates, birthday greetings and all other correspondence from ApexSpeed.com. There will be no warnings or notes to let you know, you'll just lose all of your e-mail alerts. Repeat offenders will have their ApexSpeed account locked so that it absolutely cannot happen again.



If this continues to happen, eventually drastic measures will be taken to protect our communication through ApexSpeed. This will result in the removal of ALL AOL.com accounts from the userbase, and the blocking of any future AOL.com registered e-mails.

I don't want to, but if this keeps putting us in a position to be singled out by AOL, and keeps our e-mails from getting to their target recipients, I'll do whatever I need to do.

[HazelNut]

have you submitted a bulk mailer whitelist request with AOL postmaster?

[dc]

Yup... have I mentioned how much I love dealing with AOL?

[DanW]

15 years ago, we discovered the nickname was AOHell..

[dc]

We are still getting AOL users marking ApexSpeed automatic forum and PM notifications as SPAM. AOL has continued to threaten our server host with blacklisting and IP blocking, among other things.

If you AOL users still in the internet stone age can't stop flagging ApexSpeed reminders as SPAM, then we are VERY close to blocking all AOL e-mail addresses from the forums completely. That would mean that any user that is registered under an AOL.com e-mail address will have to find another e-mail address to stay registered on ApexSpeed.

We've been fighting with them for years, and I'm tired of the threatening letters. The amount of spam we get from them is at least 10-times more than they consider spam from us, yet they are still threatening blockage. At this point, we're just about ready to pull the plug on AOL accounts here in ApexSpeed.



PLEASE, if you are marking your PMs and thread reminders from ApexSpeed as SPAM or don't have "@apexspeed.com" on your list of trusted e-mails, you are contributing to the removal of AOL.com e-mail availability within ApexSpeed. STOP IT!





Maybe a public list of everyone who is causing these threats from AOL would be a more logical next step...

[HazelNut]

use a whitelisted transactional (bulk) email provider for outgoing notifications. This will keep your mail email server address space clean even if you continue to get mistakenly flagged

http://sendgrid.com/

[rickb99]

I've had the same AOL e-mail address since 1995. I really don't think I want to change it with only a few more years of life left.

On the other hand Apexspeed stuff is NEVER tagged as spam by me.

[dc]

$10 a month to pacify AOL? Hah! It's easier to block the whole domain from registering here.

[KevinFirlein]

had AOL since I bought a pc in 98. Been a part of these forums in every form they have had since originally created by Justin Pritchard. I have never had AOL mark anything notice from any version of these forums as spam. I don't know what people are doing but I guess my days here are numbered though.

[Dick R.]

Doug,

Could the long time AOL email guys use a gmail, yahoo mail, etc. account for ApexSpeed?

Dick with a long time Mindspring.com email address . . . fortunately AND a gmail address.

Dick
CM85

[dc]

We're not banning AOL users, but we may have to take some extra actions against individuals who seem intent on requesting PM or thread alerts then marking the e-mails as JUNK when they get them.

BTW, Kevin, Justin never had anything to do with this site... we started this BECAUSE of those forums and how awful they were.

[Marshall Mauney]

Here's another longtime AOL user - I've had the same e-mail address since '95 and don't really want to change it. I've also never marked anything from this website as spam.....not sure how best to deal with it.

Is it possible that the real problem is guys who come in and sign up, but then either get out of racing or discover that it's not a "fast cars" website? What if you just turned off all notification to anyone who hasn't visited or posted in the last 90 days/6 months/1 year?

[dc]

Ok dinosaur lovers, for all of you still carrying pagers and using rotary phones, we have come to a severe breaking point with AOL and their consistent threats to blacklist ApexSpeed.

One of our regular forum members has marked 6 different e-mails or PM alerts from ApexSpeed as SPAM with AOL, triggering a panic attack by our host provider, who has in turn made us very uncomfortable.

As it is, I can't even contact this forum member through PM or e-mail, because for some reason the notes are all being flagged as SPAM.





So we have finally come to this. I hate to do it, but they have left me no choice. I have been tremendously patient dealing with AOL and all of their crap over the years, but I don't have time to hand hold anymore.

This evening (7/22/15), we are officially blocking AOL from all new registrations and all old accounts with AOL.com e-mail addresses will (should) be prompted to enter a new contact e-mail address the next time you log in.

I hate to do it, but AOL has long been irrelevant as an ISP and e-mail provider, and continuing to threaten us and our host provider has worn me out.


We would recommend any of the free e-mail sources such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail (Google) for you to use as an alternative. As of this evening, AOL.com account addresses will be blocked from ApexSpeed.com account.




Sorry,


Doug

[dc]

Q: How do I change my e-mail address here?

A: Easy! Just go to your User CP and change it in the "Edit Email & Password" settings. You'll get a confirmation e-mail in your new mailbox shortly to make sure it's a real address, and you'll be good to go.



AOL's e-mail provider service is LONG past its prime. A provider such as Gmail is far superior in every respect. Even if you don't use the account regularly, it's always good to have when filling out forms, as a service like Gmail is GREAT for spam control.

[bobmelvin]

I hear you, brother. AOL is a mess and has been for years. Has to do with the inexperience of the users and their refusal to follow smart protocols.

As a rather large ecommerce seller (we have a few retail sites), AOL addresses are responsible for about 90% of the fraud attempts and spam on our sites. The amount of hacked AOL accounts must be nearly 100%. These are not the users, they don't even know they've been hacked. Their box/address is being used to send remotely.

The primary reason? Email senders who put anyone they want to copy (CC) into the CC field as opposed to the BCC field. Bots strip all CC addresses. I get AOL spam all day long with hundreds of addresses in the CC field. We get spam all day long from some of our best customers (who run AOL).

Do not ever send a group addressed email with the addresses in CC. ALWAYS use BCC. If you send to a hacked friend, all the CC addresses are 'pharmed' off the box. BCC isn't read.

You've been blacklisted at AOL which is why you can't email them from this domain.

Here is a piece from Rutgers addressing this mess in case my explanation is insufficient:
http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/bcc-for-privacy.html

I can't imagine why someone would hold an AOL address?


Don't get me started on hotmail.............

[Fantasy Junction]

I had no idea that AOL was still around, hahaha

[scott fairchild]

Any issues with Prodigy? Lol

[mikey]

This reminds me Doug, I've been having issues with your forum displaying properly in my Mosaic browser. I even tried reverting back to gopher to see if I could at least read the text, but no luck.

[Robert J. Alder]

For those gentlemen who were worried about giving up their age-old AOL address, please note. You don't have to. You can have more than one email address. It's really easy to apply for a gmail account. just go here:
https://accounts.google.com/signup

Then armed with your new ADDITIONAL email address from Gmail, change your email of record with ApexSpeed (and only ApexSpeed) .

The downside is that you'll have to then check in on Gmail to see if there is any incoming email into your Gmail account (like a PM from a fellow Apex user) But surely your AOL browser will let you create a Favorite (or bookmarked) website (i.e. the website to check your Gmail account) so it should be easy to track your new gmail account in addition to doing whatever you do with AOL to manage that email.

You can have your cake (keep AOL and use as you always have) but also have a contemporary email account with Gmail. Heck, y9ou might even find you like it better than AOL.

[dc]

AOL.com addresses are now banned from ApexSpeed. Seems like a stupid thing to say, but it was FAR more trouble than it was worth.

I hope it doesn't cause too much inconvenience for the people still using aol.com addresses, and that maybe even some of you will find you like Gmail or other options better (likely).



Any AOL user now logging in will be prompted to change their e-mail address. Once you change then confirm, you will be good as new and nothing will have been changed with your account other than where the notifications are sent to.

Sorry it had to come to this, but you can tell by the original post date, this has been boiling for a while.






RIP AOL ASAP

[TimW]

You can also have your new gmail account get your aol mail. Takes a couple steps but gmail can essentially be an email client for any email address you own. Those googlers,, they're seem to get that (those) Internet(s) thing.

[Chris Livengood]

I recently switched to Gmail service from having hosted my own email. It was without a doubt the best email improvement I have made. My address stayed the same but my email got way more reliable. Spam handling was also hugely improved.

[BLS]

Spam handling was also hugely improved

I have found gmail to be the best at that. I never miss an email that I want, but thousands of spam emails are automatically removed.

[Terry Hanushek]

Doug

Is there any problem with Compuserve (now an AOL subsidiary / teammate) email account? I originally joined Apex with my 1990's CServe account which I still use to some extent. I'll change if it is causing a problem.

Thanks for all of your work on Apex

Terry

[dc]

Nope, unless you got an alert when you tried to log into the forums, you're fine. It's only e-mails that end in @aol.com.

I'm actually kinda shocked that Compuserve still exists. Seems to be a punchline in there, too.

[Terry Hanushek]

Doug

I'm actually kinda shocked that Compuserve still exists. Seems to be a punchline in there, too.

Yeah, I am too. About 3 or 4 years ago, they blew their forums (meh), ditched their proprietary software (good) and stopped charging for its use (GREAT!). I'm not sure how many hundreds of individual and sites have my CServe address and my head hurts every time I contemplate changing. I use it a lot less now but I still can be contact that way.

I get occasional emails from Apex but no alerts.

Terry

[Brian C in Az]

Once you have your Gmail account set up, there is a tab (for you to click) to set desktop notifications of new incoming Gmail. You do not have to manual look for your Apex mail. You will get a pop up notification on your desktop.

For those gentlemen who were worried about giving up their age-old AOL address, please note. You don't have to. You can have more than one email address. It's really easy to apply for a gmail account. just go here:
https://accounts.google.com/signup

Then armed with your new ADDITIONAL email address from Gmail, change your email of record with ApexSpeed (and only ApexSpeed) .

The downside is that you'll have to then check in on Gmail to see if there is any incoming email into your Gmail account (like a PM from a fellow Apex user) But surely your AOL browser will let you create a Favorite (or bookmarked) website (i.e. the website to check your Gmail account) so it should be easy to track your new gmail account in addition to doing whatever you do with AOL to manage that email.

You can have your cake (keep AOL and use as you always have) but also have a contemporary email account with Gmail. Heck, y9ou might even find you like it better than AOL.

[BLS]

Once you have your Gmail account set up, there is a tab (for you to click) to set desktop notifications of new incoming Gmail.

However, only if you use google chrome, firefox, and maybe something else, but not internet exporer. You also must have your browser open and gmail running as far as I know.

[TimW]

However, only if you use google chrome, firefox, and maybe something else, but not internet exporer. You also must have your browser open and gmail running as far as I know.

And internet explorer is still being used, why? There are many many more better secure browsers to be using nowadays.

[BLS]

And internet explorer is still being used, why?

I use it. Most people are. I also have the others.

A better question is "why not"?

Of course it doesn't really matter. It's like asking why people use "windows" when there are alternatives.

[TimW]

I use it. Most people are.

If you mean most is 13% then I think you may be right. But that's not math I learned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_market_share

It's a security mess. Not to mention requires developers to write their sites to work in non standard implementations of web standards, creating more cost for the world doubling the work. While that issue has subsided more recently that that was the practice for so many years most everyone still cringes when anyone says IE.

So it matters a lot.

[dc]

I use it. Most people are.

Nope, wrong.

IE is not made for Mac or PC anymore. It's more obsolete than AOL.

[BLS]

I may be wrong. I do however travel around the world, working with industrial clients and have never seen any browser used other than IE in those places. I'm really surprised to see the stats regarding chrome since I have never seen it in use except in this country. Maybe it is an industrial thing in the 3rd world.

corrected I am

[H_Mode]

Where I work, a US arm of a mulit-national company just last year upgraded from XP to Windows 7. The only supported browser for IT and company internal stuff is IE.

Big = Slow = "Risk Adverse"

If it is Microsoft is must be good.

I once spent TWO days trying to fill out an expense report for a week long trip. Paperless electronic system. My boss did not question in any way the time.

Dilbert is a documentary.

[Dave Welsh]

13% of all devices (which includes mobile devices) use IE. 50% use Chrome/Android.

In Dec 2104, Desktop devices, 22% Chrome, 59% IE.

This is according to the Wikipedia link in the post above.

[BLS]

Hey Dave, thanks. I was not considering 'mobile" devices in my original statement, only PC's of laptop/desktop variety. So, I'm not as crazy/ignorant as I thought...