If you’re an AOL user and MNA member who depends on e-mail as a communications tool, you may be experiencing a unique delay in the delivery of some messages—including those sent to you from the MNA.
Why? Because AOL offers its users a (somewhat hidden) feature that allows your inbox to be automatically scanned for messages that look like "spam," and then places these messages in a "spam folder."
In terms of how this affects you as an MNA member, AOL sends all individual e-mail messages from the MNA directly to your spam folder. The result: many AOL users do not even realize that this folder exists and therefore never see any e-mail communications from the MNA.
There are several things you can do to resolve this situation. Please note though that none of these suggestions alone is a panacea. Instead, the IT department at the MNA recommends implementing all of the following suggestions:
- In the AOL program in "Spam Controls," under the heading, "Control Who I Get Mail From," check the button that says, "Allow Mail from All Senders." This will ensure that all mail is forwarded. Please note though that messages from the MNA will still be placed in a spam folder—but if you do not have this button checked, messages from the MNA won’t even be sent to your spam folder. Instead, they will be deleted entirely, and automatically, by AOL.
- Also in the "Spam Controls" section on AOL, under the heading "Blocked Mail Should Be," check the button that says, "Delivered to the Spam Folder." Again, if you don’t do this, mail from the MNA (and many other sources) will not be delivered at all.
- To have e-mail messages from the MNA go directly to your inbox, you will need to add the e-mail address of the individual sender(s) at MNA to your AOL address book. If the sender’s address is in your address book, any mail from that sender will be delivered to your inbox instead of the spam folder.
- If an MNA staff member sends you a message and the sender’s e-mail is not listed in your AOL address book, you will need to look in your spam folder for the message. When you locate the message in the spam folder, highlight it and click the button that says, "This is Not Spam." Doing this will place the message in your inbox and add the sender’s e-mail address to your address book automatically. As a result, all future messages from that sender will be delivered directly to your inbox.
Users may also find it helpful to contact AOL’s customer service department at 800.346.3704. Please be assured that the MNA is also working to resolve this problem, and the organization will soon be contacting AOL’s corporate offices.
