Downsize DC president Jim Babka replies to Politech: "valuable lessons learned" [fs]

Previous Politech messages:
http://www.politechbot.com/2007/02/05/more-on-downsize/
http://www.politechbot.com/2007/02/05/libertarian-group-downsize/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Learning valuable lessons
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 14:50:12 -0500
From: Jim Babka <[email protected]>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <[email protected]>

Declan,



(THIS IS A PUBLIC MESSAGE, AND I HOPE YOU WILL REPUBLISH IT)

Thanks so much for posting our account of difficulties with AOL to your
email audience. It appears to me that we have benefited in two important
ways.



First, for the first time someone from AOL called our programmer this
morning. This person was helpful and even friendly =96 so helpful and fri=
endly
that they offered their direct, personal contact information to our
programmer in case there are any further complications.



And according to this person, our problem will be solved by this evening.=




Did the widespread distribution, particularly by you, of our message lead=
 to
this phone call? I think the likelihood that it mattered is quite high. A=
nd
so, we=92re grateful.



Second, many people have written you and have since posted on our blog
telling us all kinds of things we=92re doing wrong and need to address. W=
e=92re
reading and considering all the feedback we=92re getting. Much of it is q=
uite
good and helpful. And we appreciate the constructive criticism.



Where possible, I intend to make contact with some of those who have
written.



Some of the commentary wasn=92t helpful or specifically relevant. I want =
to
address it, just to make sure the record is clear. We had only two proble=
ms.
Both were spelled out in the material you distributed.



In addition, we just learned this morning that the =93comprised script=94=

problem that led to our blacklisting was generated by specifically filed
complaints (plural). We did not have a =93score=94 or other technical def=
ect
that put us there. AOL has, apparently, concluded that we did address the=

compromised script issue.



And despite what anyone can and did say, common sense would dictate that =
it
is easy to target any group you disagree with by filing a complaint with
your ISP or with some service like SpamCop. As a matter of fact we have
experience with someone successfully getting us blacklisted for political=

reasons through SpamCop back in 2004 (or 2005, as I get older, dates are
harder to keep track of). A man from New Hampshire simply claimed that we=

were A) spamming him =96 that he didn=92t sign up for our list =96 and B)=
 that we
refused his repeated requests to be removed. He had in fact signed up for=

our list, which we were able to demonstrate, and he had never requested
additional assistance to unsubscribe (an easy thing to track because we h=
ad
only two employees at the time). On the other hand, he had written nasty
things about us on his website, including the fact that he wished we were=

shut down and that someone ought to see to that. When we were targeted by=

this individual back in 04 (or 05), and arrived on other ISP=92s blacklis=
ts as
a result, SpamCop was very responsive and the problem was quickly remedie=
d.
What was unusual here was that no one at AOL, until today, seemed ready t=
o
work with us.



But I never said that AOL was acting in a political fashion in either of =
the
statements I released yesterday. I don=92t have specific knowledge of suc=
h a
conspiracy and would never suggest such a thing without some evidence. Ou=
r
issue, as I clearly explained, was with AOL=92s general method of doing
business and it had cost us a lot.



Yet I=92m glad that I sent out that message to our list yesterday and
appreciative of the fact that you picked it up and reported it. We had
reached our wits end and didn=92t know what else to do. Both quick respon=
se by
AOL and the technical feedback we=92ve received are going to help us addr=
ess
shortcomings and issues that, in some cases, we didn=92t even know we had=
=2E And
that=92s a real blessing.



Best wishes,



Jim Babka, President

HYPERLINK "http://www.downsizedc.com/"Downsize DC Foundation

& HYPERLINK "http://www.downsizedc.org/"DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Host... The Downsize DC Conference Call

Big Governmentcosts you, inconveniences you, and occasionally hurts peopl=
e
you love. But it routinely injures a neighbor, damages your industry, and=

destroys your community -- it even kills people. We must Downsize DC for
Human Progress.



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