Note from TC

It appears most got the point of the Rant, some missed it altogether. The point is that anytime you allow someone else to control your private property - delete it, embellish it, trash it, or manipulate it, you've just lost a bit of freedom. With freedom comes responsibility. Freedom is not free, it comes at a very dear price.

A few of our readers seem to have no problem with AOL's censorship and see AOL's control of private email as a benefit. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Well, just read some of the comments below and draw your own conclusions.

Well done! AOL bamboozles newbies into believing they need them to access the web. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Did you know you can access much of their "stuff" on the web for free? Go to
www.aol.com/beta

Keep up the excellent work!

Bill
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Thank you for your blunt and truthful comments about the dangers of censorship. I do not have AOL for many reasons. You just spelled out one of them very clearly. Thank you! I hope others will read and heed.

A grateful Cloudeight member,
Jan

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I am probably being repetitious here but I went through the whole "Spam Filtering" nonsense with my ISP about 3 months ago. I went looking for a couple of newsletters I normally get and realized that "Spam Bully", a program you used to recommend and I find quite helpful, wasn't the culprit. (Sometimes it grabs these subscriptions even though it's been "trained" not to). I noted that I hadn't received ANY spam for a couple of weeks, and remember you had mentioned something about ISPs installing spam filters.

So, the call to Customer Service and Tech Support was made. The guy in Tech Support (the owner of the service) was quite proud of his program until I told him that I wasn't paying for them to censor my mail. I asked if there was some way he could turn off the filter on my account and was assured he could. He had never thought of it as censorship before but as a service to his customers. He also commented that not many customers invest in a personal spam filter but instead were complaining to him about the amount of spam they were taking in. It took him about 4 tries (and me 4 calls/e-mails) over a month to have it done so it works, but I'm happily harvesting my email in my own spam filter.

Thanks for bringing this matter to our attention. Perhaps I'm being overly cynical, but I feel that many political entities would LOVE to see spam filters at the ISP level mandatory for us all - with them at the controls. Our national security is reliant on the free publication of news and commentary - otherwise we will become, as you said, a replica of Nazi Germany.

Keep up the good work.

-Leslie
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I totally agree with your rant. Just last week a friend sent me an email, which never came. My ISP provider, private and local, with whom I had had no problems with before, had confiscated it. That made me wonder how much of my mail was NOT getting through to me. I immediately called them, and told them I wanted ALL my mail to get through, that I was quite capable of sifting through it myself to decide which emails were spam. Strangely enough, they did send all my mail, and there was not that much junk above which I had already been receiving.

I would be upset if my local mail carrier was deciding which mail I should receive. We sift through our 'junk mail' at home; I reserve the right to also sift through it with my email. It's time that we stand up and tell our ISP's what we want, rather than them putting their desires upon us, all in the name of 'protection'.

Regards,
Judy
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BRAVO !! I appreciate your 'rant' so much. . .I hope it's not too late for Americans to take measures to stay free of censorship and propaganda.

But, I have little confidence. I've been 'ranting' to friends and relatives for quite a number of years now, and they just poo poo my concerns. I've seen campaign speeches with misleading backdrops of boxes saying "Made in USA" ( when most Americans were unaware of the magnitude of outsourcing) Just recently, I've noticed TV. shows being cut short to get the commercials started sooner ( and NO, I don't have Tivo or any other fast-forwarding device). If I did, I'd hardly fast forward to get to the commercial. . .

Personally, I believe this sort of behavior got it's wings when we, Americans stood still for the mandatory seat-belt laws. . .Yes, they may save lives. . and they may not. .It just might depend on the circumstances. That's not the point !! I would certainly think if I trusted the testing and the data, I would be quite happy to take a simple safety measure and buckle my belt. Ahhh , but I forget, my big brother thinks I'm so stupid, he has to tell me what to do, charge me for it, and punish me if I don't buckle my belt to stay safe in my car. Same with smoking in my car in N.J. ( too distracting ).

Check out the newest in censorship. Before the Senate, as we speak is a bill for government oversight of "TV Ratings." It will likely pass and will definitely cause the honest reporting of what people are watching to become so bogged down in red-tape that we'll never know what people are watching until long after they've watched it, IF EVER !!!!!

Thank you for all you try to do for, not just your customers. . .like you said, some are FREE recipients of your newsletter. . .You are concerned obviously with the Principal of these matters, as I am. . .I thought I was the only one, who related it to the days and ways of Hitler. . .Them's tough words, but I concur. How else could it happen in a Free Country. . .slowly, over time. And always the loving and caring big brotherly " . . . because we want to protect you. . ."

I told a relative just last week, for the umpteenth time: " We will soon be set up perfectly for a Hitler in office."
Better not print this, I might get on a profiling list. . .for expressing words of concern for the Freedoms we once knew in America.

Please swallow this letter after you've read it. <G>
Jill
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I believe that it is impossible for AOL or anyone else to look at each email to determine the "intent". If you don't want spam blocked, don't use one of the services that do that. Unfortunately, sometimes spam slips through, and sometimes something is blocked that isn't entirely spam. This is part of working and living in the internet generation. I would rather lose an item from my email than to have all the other junk delivered. (I'm not an AOL subscriber). In short, you can't be everywhere, read everything, and please everyone. Possibly AOL subscribers should be talking with AOL about not blocking this newsletter. Or, perhaps the newsletter folks could look into issuing the newsletter is such a way that the "link" isn't really a "link". You've got so many answers, learn from this an avoid it in the future. In short (repeating), if you don't want your spam blocked (censorship), don't use the services that do that as a service for those of us who do.

k
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I agree with you "150%"....I missed a couple of issues of Info Ave Premium a few months back....Never did find out the reason. Maybe my ISP 'flirted" with filtering the mail, and decided against it. I don't know. But I like all your subscribers look forward to Friday morning eagerly to see what I might learn reading your newsletter. Perhaps your information is doing too much good, and there are other forces at work to try and bring you down. Let's pray that that is not what's happening. It's amazing that AOL was once the leader...what happened....too greedy?? Whatever, you are a beacon slicing through the murk on the internet...I have said it before. I've also said that if government really wants to help clean up the fraudulent goings on with the internet...they would do well to examine your abilities and worth, toward a goal of awarding you a grant to help you continue and to grow in the fight against internet graft! Grants are given to many worthy causes. Protecting the privacy and security of the millions using the net would seem to me to be a worthy cause!

Keep up the great work
Joan
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Hi guys, well that was quite a read. There sure are a lot of stuff going on out there. Now I must agree, that my emails are my own, and I would not want my ISP or Server, to control my emails without my accepting the fact. I would be terribly angry if my Cloudeight emails were stopped without my knowledge. I have programmed my server to send me warnings of potential junk mail, and "I" decide if I delete or not, and that is the way it should be. I agree, don't mess with my emails, is my motto, taking control of someone's life against their will is not acceptable. This company in question needs to wake up and "smell the coffee", or they will eventually be left way behind. Keep up the good work, and keeping us informed is a great asset to belonging to this site.

Thank you
Suzanne
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In addition to this censorship problem at AOL, I have learned that the company does other dastardly things.

I have had a couple of friends and family members cancel their service with AOL. Within the hour or two their computers were mysteriously infected with various viruses

Have you heard of this?

My brother-in-law had to get a tech to come in and fix his computer. Basically they had to erase his hard drive and start with a "clean" computer, losing all the information he had saved on his computer.

Hearing your story about the censorship that AOL "protects" their customers with just reinforces what I have been thinking for a long time. Don't sign up with AOL! I have been telling friends since the virus was discovered, not to sign up with AOL. It's only asking for trouble.

Naomi

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Beautifully done and said.......We're all in a GLOBAL Community take over......This is all in their plan......Big Brother's Plan.
Last night on CNN they were talking about how the gov. has secret cameras everywhere.......There's 15,000 of these cameras alone in Manhattan.. Lots of things going on right under our noses and it seems most are being brainwashed.
All is controlling the masses. Then all is to do exactly what Hitler did...This time it's through all these NEW diseases. West Nile/ Mad Cow/ Food additives/ Drugs/ War etc..........We nearing the end......Our freedom no longer exist..........We're all afraid that if we speak out they WILL declare Marshall Law... Pick us up and never be heard of again......WE THE PEOPLE need NOT be AFRAID!.....It's AMERICANS as yourselves that SPEAK UP that are being ATTACKED by BIG BROTHER that MUST CONTINUE TO LET THE PEOPLE KNOW!...I'll pass this on to as many ppl as possible...........GOD BLESS YOU and LETS CONTINUE FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!...........

Hilda
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Thanks for this great article on AOL.

I despise AOL and it's methods of operation. I would never use their services, even if someone paid me to do it. You are so right-on about how they operate. Recently, I too, had email returned to me that I had mailed to my friend. The reason given was a url in my email, the same urls I've had on my email for a long time. The reason given was that complaints had been made about my url - which is a lie - I sent the email back, and removed each url, except for one and it went through. I did it with each of them, and it went through.

The other thing I found disturbing, is that AOL requested that I contact them so that they could send complaints directly to me about the urls in my email. They requested a lot of personal information too - so of course, no way I would do that with them. They probably use that ploy as a means of having the info to try and get a person to subscribe to their services. Who knows with them anyhow?

The other thing I have never liked about AOL - they are the only ISP that requires that links be listed differently with some html code; AOL users can go to Yahoo and use their services or hotmail or anywhere else for that matter, using chat rooms, group, clubs, etc, but if you are not a member of AOL you cannot access any of their services.

Kudos for your outstanding article!!!!

Thank you as well for all the interesting and helpful information you provide.

Jeanne
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I am glad that you are there to look out for us. Forewarned is forearmed.

Thank You.
JES

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I think you're whacked!!! Quoting from your rant: "To be fair we had some mail server problems last Friday. That combined with other ISPs adding more censorship (spam filters) wreaked havoc with last Friday's newsletters. AOL isn't the only ISP that censors its customers email under the guise of protection. . ." As an AOL subscriber, I appreciate the protection they give me - I certainly didn't have it with my old provider, and I received 20-25 spam e-mails a day!!! That amount is not only frustrating, it is a COMPLETE invasion of MY privacy, and I don't pay ANYONE to allow spam to come through my mailbox!!!! I hope you ranted about the other ISPs who added more "censorship", "to be fair" Get a grip!!!!

KR

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What a great message! I'm passing it on to all my AOL contacts.

Thanks,
Jan
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Regarding the AOL censorship. www.GoDaddy.com is doing a similar thing.

I moved my website www.JudySabah.com to them the 1st of April. My email address is Judy@JduySabah.com.

It took about 30 days for me to notice that I was not getting some of the ezines I had subscribed to. Since then I have spend countless hours with their tech people to try to resolve email issues.

I have learned that any ezine that is distributed by Constant Contact is blocked at the server. So any ezine that I have subscribed to that is comes through Constant Contact I do not get and there is nothing I can do about it. GoDaddy says that they feel Constant Contact allows spamming.

I also am not able to get my newsletter from my professional trade association. I have not been able to figure this one out yet.

This past week I had the final straw. As part of my business as a coach I do assessments/profiles. My client goes to a website and completes an instrument for which I then get a report. Last week a number of reports did not get to me. I have learned that because the server that hosts the site with the assessments uses a dsl connection GoDaddy is blocking anything that comes as well as any server that has a dial up or cable connection.

So in essence they have put me out of business this week.

I am moving my website to another host today, we have been preparing for the move since learning about this.

Thanks for all you do,
Judy

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I always thought AOL was for people who didn't now to use a computer. Once you know how to turn a computer on and off it is time to move on.

Byron

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Dear Eightball and Thundercloud –

I just read your Rant email regarding AOL and censorship! A big thumbs up to you!!!!! My husband and I were just last night discussing the issue of the ACLU’s lawsuit against the City of New York with our 18 year old, newly graduated daughter who will be entering this world on her own very, very soon. How ironic that your eloquent email would appear in my inbox this morning. I showed your email to my daughter to give her a better perspective of what is subtly happening right under our very noses and to teach her that she must always be aware.

I have been reading your newsletters and using your stationery since the beginning – at least for several years. I admire you and thank you deeply for having the courage to send this email out to your subscribers.

Sincerely -

Sheri
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About AOL I dropped them a long time ago due to fact every time I had a problem with them they said the problem did not exist. What a fast way to fix a problem, just deny that it exists. They are overpriced for one. I know all people have their own favorite ISPs and I realize none of them are perfect. They all have their faults. Oh by the way I did get your newsletter last week, but I double checked to make sure you were in the safe-list and you are. The only time I have had my email removed before it is delivered is if it has something unsafe like a virus, but my ISP always tells me what email and who it is from so I can notify the person if it was something I was expecting. Anyway, you are right, I should be the one to decide if I want to open my email or not and I should be the one to decide what is junk mail and regular e-mail. I do not need a "babysitter".

Kathy
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I will tell you what I think....I think it is really ironic that I could not open this email my Aunt sent to me re:AOL CENSORSHIP.....HOW ABOUT THAT?????? I had an online conversation with them I would love to forward to you, asking them, "how come whenever I receive mail from my Aunt re: AOL, it is always sent back to her, and they wont let me receive MY OWN MAIL!!! Now that one has accidentally made it thru their censorship and hit MY INBOX, I could NOT OPEN IT!!! Of course it had to do with, my Maximum disc space and "my artwork." I don't do ANY artwork of any kind. They gave me a page of crap to do to be able to open my email, in frustration I signed off. Now that I have signed back on.....guess what....I CAN OPEN THIS EMAIL!!!!! NOW HOW ABOUT THAT FOR CENSORSHIP. THEY ARE CENSORING MY EMAIL ON THEIR CENSORSHIP. What a kick in the *##.

Cathy
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I agree with your statements. I have some e-mail friends on AOL and I have trouble even with personal mail getting to them. I've told them if it keeps up I am not going to re-send things, it takes too much time and I've suggested they leave AOL for a more 'user friendly' ISP and I have told them it will probably be less expensive as well. I would not touch AOL as a server for all the money in the US Mint. That goes for CompuServe as well.

Censorship is not their job, their job is to service their clientele, allow their mail to come through and let them worry about SPAM. It is their clientele's job to handle their own mail and Spam not sit back and let the ISP do it. Next thing we know they'll be telling them who they can and cant receive personal one on one mail from - who knows maybe they have already. No thanks, I'll put up with handling my own Spam in favor of a server that only filters for virus.

I am so grateful that my Roadrunner even if it does have problems at times doesn't have a filter for Spam on it any longer. It filters only for virus. It used too have one and their clientele made so much racket about it that they removed it. I know that PeoplePC has a Spam filter on it as well, but it is geared to read your address list and let through what is on that list, hence if cloud8 is on my list and I am with Peoplepc your newsletter gets through. I have a friend on that server and I made very sure that every one of his contacts was in his address book before he started receiving mail and I told him he absolutely had to keep his address book up to date or risk loosing mail and why.

As for no Spam filter, it doesn't bother me a bit - I use Mailwasher to take care of the Spam I get thanks to your suggestion in an early newsletter. I took the free version and then switched to the paid one when it came out. I can send my Spam to the spamcop.com people as well with this version. If I am any example of the Spam coming in then they must be overwhelmed.

Thanks again and keep up the good work, censorship of any type absolutely can not be tolerated in this country, especially on our ISP's.

Marie

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Thank you so much for not being afraid to tell it like it is! Having courage to speak the truth is becoming all too rare these days, with the "politically correct" thinking we are being brain-washed into.

I recently used AOL's free trial, against my better judgment, and I know first hand that everything you say about their inferior service and inflated pricing is true. It took me several weeks to get all traces of AOL off of my computer, including recurrent Hardware Installation Wizard messages (errors) each time I would reboot. Their software is bloated with useless "frills", uses valuable resources, and slows everything down considerably.

The "Big Brother" attitude is irritating to put it mildly, and for the life of me I do not understand how they have managed to stay around all these years. But as you say, propaganda does indeed go a long way. The constant mantra of being "protected" by using their service has been swallowed by too many unwilling to think for themselves.

Again my thanks, for being honest, candid, and forthright in calling it as it really is. God bless you, and may you be richly blessed.

Sincerely,

Rachel
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First of all, before I begin the "rant", I just want to tell you guys how great I think your newsletters are. They are so informative and helpful. I wish everyone would (and could) read them.

My story with AOL happened a couple of years ago, but I am sure it is still relevant today. We had decided to switch from AOL to another ISP. What we had to go through was hell. I had notified them through every avenue available that we no longer wanted their service, but yet they continued to bill my card for their services. They even sent me acknowledgements that I had cancelled the service, but my card kept getting charges every month.

I had been warned by previous AOL users that I would have to pay the devil to get rid of them. I ended up having to cancel the card they were charging to finally "exorcise" myself from this company. Most of the folks I talked to said it took anywhere from 3 to 6 months to finally lose these creeps. A lot of them had to do the same thing I did and cancel cards.

I wish someone would make a commercial with all the "dissatisfied ex or even current customers" of this company. Maybe we could find a way to spam their service. It would be poetic justice and a blessing in disguise.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! Keep up the great work you do!!

Mary

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I am more than aware of AOL's censorship. I have a friend who swears by AOL. We belong to a Yahoo group. I cannot send a link to a tutorial in an email to her and the two other members because it will be censored. I have to wrap the link up in an email I send to myself and attach it for them to get it. Talk about crazy. The worst part of it is though, is the one friend thinks this is great protection.

I've tried gently telling her but no she won't listen. So anyway, AOL's censorship is one of my pet peeves.

Carol

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Hello Classmates, Friends and Relatives
with a copy to Cloud Eight Premium News Letter.

After experiencing terrible tech and customer support from AOL, I am considering
changing my Internet Service Provider. I very rarely rely on AOL tech support since
I use the AOL Check Up service which finds and fixes problems automatically or
with my many years of computing experience handle most problems myself.

I would appreciate hearing from any of you regarding your Internet Service Provider.

I definitely need at least 100 to 150 mg of web space for the Mc Bride web site and
some way to share Picture Albums with those of you on the monthly Album list.

It seems that since AOL has gone to India for Tech Support that you get apologies
and thank yous and poor tech support from AOL. I was finally able to solve
my Spam interference problem by changing my E mail address for a weekly newsletter subscription that I have been receiving all year until last Friday. I now have same sent to my Google E Mail address which is forwarded to me at AOL without interference from the AOL Spam controls.

AOL used to have great Customer Service and a way to complain If you couldn't get your problem solved. Not anymore one tech suggested I write a letter to AOL in
Virginia. Hard to believe that an Major ISP says send us snail mail.

My apologies for this Epistle.

If you didn't read all of this I fully understand.

Joe B.
 

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You are right on the money with this rant. I have two web sites that were
built with the Tripod (Lycos) tools and the links to those sites are in my
email signature. I am a part time DJ and one of the sites has info about my
DJ services and internet radio station. The other one is (and this makes me
absolutely furious) is an American Legion site that has info about the Legion
Post I am a member of and am 2nd Vice Commander of that post. There is info
on that site that is very beneficial to older Vets as far as the services
they may be eligible for. However AOL with their censorship will not send any
of my emails to my contacts with AOL email address because of the Tripod
links in my email signature. I am forced to remove these two links from my
signature before I can send to any of my AOL contacts. Can you imagine, AOL
censoring an American Legion web site. Totally Ludicrous. I am one of the
fortunate who has never been an AOL fan and have never subscribed or used
their software.

I would like to forward your rant to my AOL email contacts. Would this be
legal as I don't want big brother AOL coming after me.
Thank you for your very informative newsletter and BTW these are the two
links that AOL censors.

Lou

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J.

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Okay, so AOL made a huge mistake. Okay, so maybe they errored on the side of caution. Okay, so perhaps it was a big mix-up, and caused some frustration and annoyance.

But, GET OVER IT! Lord! When you use the word "RANT" in your subject line, you aren't kidding!!

Yes, I want to be warned about potential security threats, but I seriously don't envision that some AOL employee sits down and READS every word of the mail that flies over the Internet, and into your 20,000 AOL customer's boxes. They obviously have software that is programmed to catch and filter certain links, words, etc., so while it was an unfortunate error, your RANT (and rant, it was indeed), really went ON and ON, and was really quite unnecessary, other than to explain what actually happened, and why your 20,000 customers did not receive their newsletters. And while you BRIEFLY mentioned that other customers did not receive their newsletters due to THEIR spamming protection--and in passing state that you want to be fair to AOL by mentioning that you did, in fact, have technical problems on that day--you really singled out AOL and bashed them totally. It's QUITE apparent that you are indeed extremely prejudiced against AOL, and that's your business, of course--but is it MINE? Must I hear about your extreme hatred of AOL under the guise (yes, guise) of You protecting ME from censorship?? ....and you compare AOL to Hitler?? Wow!

Dawn

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