[PSUBS-MAILIST] IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ

[Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles]

Email is becoming a problem.  It is becoming more difficult to deal with 
the numerous ways internet providers are dealing with perceived spam, 
and PSUBS email is often interpreted as unsolicited mail even though 
I've been careful to configure it to comply with industry standards.  
The real problem is that internet providers in their zest to stop spam 
reaching their customers are implementing non-standard means to reach 
that end.

You will recall that the latest "fix" was to make it look like those 
submitting mail to the list were actually doing so from the PSUBS 
server.  This is why emails now show "<your-name> via 
personal_submersibles" instead of the actual submitters email address as 
it use to be.  Additionally, more and more providers are simply blocking 
the PSUBS discussion list completely and we have no solution for that.  
This happened just recently to one of our members and the only solution 
was to get an account someplace (usually gmail or yahoo) that didn't 
block our discussion list.

Bottom line is that when these spam issues arise it usually kills our 
discussions until I can get the time to determine what the real issue is 
and find a fix for it.  Worse, I never know if there is really a problem 
or if the list is just quiet, until someone contacts me personally and 
says they haven't seen any messages for a while.  I am finding I have 
less time overall to deal with email configuration issues and less 
desire to spend my time chasing after such solutions.  Therefore, I have 
resurrected web based forums on the website and set up various 
discussion forums.  I am not going to shut-off the email based 
discussions, but I am no longer going to provide technical support for 
them either.  For anyone that encounters email issues in the future, the 
answer will be, move over to the web-forum.

It behooves us to start this process now while the email discussion list 
is still working adequately so we can resolve any issues with the 
web-forum.  So please take the time to register on the web-forum even if 
you still intend to use the email list as your primary means for now.  I 
personally prefer email to the web-forum, but I have finally raised the 
white-flag and capitulated because of the pain involved with trying to 
chase the anti-spam policies of major internet providers.

Again, the email discussion list is not closing down, but I am no longer 
providing technical support for it.  The web based forum will become our 
"official" means of communication even though we (including me) may 
still use the email method.

Jon