(Disclaimer: both AOL and Apple are members of IMC.)
Since this is the list-managers mailing list, let's keep this focused on
mailing lists. AOL has not done a great job of helping their members
understand how to get on, get off, and be nice members of mailing lists.
Unfortunately, the same can be said for Apple and its employees, from my
personal list management experience (I say "unfortunately" because I'm a
card-carrying Mac enthusiast).
The issue of mailing list education goes way beyond finger-pointing and
accusing. Today, AOL attracts more people who are probably harder to
educate about the Internet than other ISPs do. However, I believe that we
are rapidly running out of new Internet users who are easily trained, and
we are about to see new users from all ISPs starting to look like the
clueless (and sometimes abusive) AOL users that list managers dread.
Corporate employees, even at computer manufacturers like Apple, have either
chosen to get on the Internet before today, or have chosen not to. Those
who have chosen not to but change their minds (probably involuntarily) this
year represent a challenge to all mailing list owners. Instead of having
just one email interface, they'll have many, many of them not native
Internet applications, often written by companies that were actively
antagonistic to the Internet.
So, what can we do to educate the members of our lists? What can we do to
reduce the problems caused by the users who can't/won't be educated about
the basics? Is this an issue of education or enforcement?
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium
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