Just a quick announcement to let you know that we are no longer sending report cards. If you have a complaint feedback loop, make sure you are monitoring your spam complaints and not relying on the report card to alert you to complaint issues. If you don't have a feedback loop, you can apply for one here: http://postmaster.aol.com/fbl/index.html

Reminder: Do not use the comment section of this blog to request postmaster support. Support requests must be submitted here: http://postmaster.aol.com/waters/index.html.

Christine
Manager, Postmaster Team

As we promised, we will be sending a different report card to domains generating an excess of 1.0% inbox complaints on a given day. Below is the text of the 1% report card.

Dear [domain name],

You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process because our available data indicate that in the last 24 hours your domain's [insert domain here] mail stream has exceeded an inbox complaint rate of 1%.

If you are an ISP, please investigate any active bot infestations, zombied computers, compromised webforms, etc.
If you are a bulkmailer, please ensure that you have a feedback loop, and that that you are following AOL's best practices guidelines for bulk-mailers.
If you are a hosting company, please ensure that you have a feedback loop on your shared servers and general IP space, and are monitoring it and addressing any problems.

If you are experiencing delivery issues as a result of rising complaints, please first address the situation and then if delivery problems persist, seek AOL's assistance via our Support Request Tools.

For additional information please visit our Postmaster website, where one can find a more detailed explanation of how the Report Card system works, AOL's technical requirements for sending email to us, AOL's best practices guidelines for bulk-mailers, and more.

This is an automated notification. Replies to this email will not be seen.

Expect this change to occur in the next few days.

Christine
Manager, Postmaster Team

This is a heads up that we are going to be making a change next week to our Report Card process.

Previously, Report Cards were sent to any domain generating in excess of 0.1% inbox complaints. The Report Card itself listed the specific inbox complaint number.

The new Report Cards will be sent to domains generating in excess of 0.3% inbox complaints. While 0.1% is still the target for a bulk mailer, we do not feel it is necessary to alert mailers of a potential problem until they have reached 0.3%. In addition to this change, we will no longer be providing the specific inbox complaint percentage for each domain. The report card will simply be an indication that you have exceeded 0.3% and that you should check your processes to ensure you are managing your spam complaints.

We have also updated our Report Card information page on the Postmaster site and the text of the Report Card itself. The new text of the Report Card is as follows:


The next step we plan to take is to send a different report card to domains generating over 1.0% inbox complaints. So, if you have 0.3% - 1.0% you will get Report Card #1. If you have over 1% complaints, you will get Report Card #2. This change will likely be made in the coming weeks, and we will post the text for Report Card #2 at that time.

Christine
Manager, Postmaster Team

Since the launch of AOL 9.0 in 2004, images and links received from unknown senders have been disabled. In May 2007, our web mail service was enhanced to disable images from unknown senders. Last week, our newest web mail product, Goa, was released. This WebSuite release completes the process by disabling links from unknown senders. Our aim is to provide our members with consistent safety features across all AOL applications.

Annalivia Ford
Senior Technical Account Manager, Postmaster Team

Invalid recipients are a fact of life for any mailer. You can minimize them with confirmed/double opt-in, but you still have typos and people who change their email addresses. We get that - it's cool.

At the same time, invalid recipients are used industry-wide as a metric of how good a mailing list is, and high invalid recipient numbers are associated with unsolicited mail and namespace mapping. That's not cool.

We've always factored invalid recipients into a sender's reputation, but we want to give you a heads up that we're refining the process a bit. As such, we would like to remind mailers that high numbers of invalid recipients is a Bad Thing and will result in poor delivery and removal from the whitelist.

Now, I know you, and you are asking, "What's a high number?" That's easy. A high number is a number higher than that which we consider indicative of a good mailer. If your invalid recipient stats are consistent with mailers similar to you, this shouldn't matter much to you. If you generate more invalid recipients than mailers similar to you, you will see a negative impact on your delivery in the near future.

David
Systems Programmer, AOL Postmaster Team