[Hidden-tech] Goodmail spells doom for mailing lists?

[Fred Steinberg]

On Feb 17, 2006, at 1:22 PM, Jonathan Dill wrote:

> Has everyone heard about the changes planned by AOL, Yahoo! etc. to
> require "certification" via Goodmail or just be blocked?
...
> What will happen to a mailing list such as this one?  Will AOL and
> Yahoo! users just be out of luck or have to get an e-mail account with
> another provider in order to receive mailing lists?

No. From what I understand the changes boil down to a way for bulk  
emailers to pay for the right to bypass the providers' spam filters.  
I.e., they can pay to send mail which might otherwise be marked as spam.

Normal email will continue as before; mail from mailing lists will  
not be automatically taxed or banned, unless it triggers spam filters.

Although who knows, this could produce more incentive for AOL, Yahoo!  
etc. to make their spam-checking more stringent. (And thus encourage  
marketers to pay to get their messages through.)