The following message was sent to 95 Kerry List members who use AOL as their internet service. There is a major problem in communications between Rootsweb and AOL. They are disputing each other as to who is at fault. Ray Marshall Kerry List Administrator ----------------------------- Dear Kerry List Subscriber The County Kerry list, in the last two days has had massive unsubscribes for all AOL users. Actually it's been going on for a couple of weeks for other Rootsweb lists. You have been automatically unsubscribed and there is no sense in your resubscribing only to have you unsubbed again. And it doesn't seem that you are getting the routine "you have been unsubscribed" messages. The cause is that Rootsweb message have not been able to be delivered to AOL and they "bounce" back. Too many bounces and people get automatically unsubscribed. Our list hasn't been that active, so I imagine that there has been more to it than that. But maybe as little as a dozen or so "bounces" will caused the unsubscribe. This procedure is set up to eliminate recipients who have died or changed addresses and who have neglected to inform Rootsweb of the change. When you have millions of messages going out, this can relieve a lot of the pressure on the computers. There is a dispute as to whether this is AOL's problem, or Rootsweb's, and until this is resolved as to whoever is at fault, and the fix made, there is nothing I, as the Kerry List Administrator, or anyone else can do about it. I have copied the addresses of the unsubscribed AOL subscribers and I am emailing you now with a suggestion that you might want to consider: Begin using another free service, like Google's Gmail, so you can get back on the list getting messages. Gmail also has a very good spam program. And it would be very easy for you to forward your Gmail messages to AOL so that you could continue to read and manage Rootsweb messages as you have been. Other services like Yahoo, Comcast and Hotmail have also had [hacking] problems, so it might be wise not to use them, either. If you have been working on a genealogical problem with someone with an AOL address, you'd better for the immediate future contact them directly rather than through the any Rootsweb list. A version of this message has been sent to the non-AOL members of the list also because I want this information in the Kerry archives if AOL members look there for messages they didn't receive. You can pass this informtion to other people you know with AOL addresses or to other Rootsweb lists to which you subscribe. You have my permission to pass this message on to other Rootsweb lists to which you subscribe if nobody has reported this yet. I received it from the Administrator of the Tipperary and Waterfrod lists and modified it for us. Ray Marshall Minneapolis IRL-Kerry Rootsweb List Administrator If you choose to change to a Gmail or other service address, this is how you may resubscribe to the Kerry list: To subscribe to the Digest version of the list, where you generally get only one message a day unless the message volume is very heavy, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes, only in the subject and the body of the message. To subscribe to the Regular version of the list, where you get every message as it is sent, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' without the quotes, only in the subject and the body of the message. Note: I'm not sure right now if any Rootsweb messages are getting through right now, November 17, to any email address. If you don't want to make any changes and are content to wait until the problem is resolved, you could occasionally monitor the Kerry List Archives by visiting them to see if message of interest to you have been posted. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/IRL-KERRY/