IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT -------- Please read below

OES-L is a discussion list, sometimes called a mailing list, where people from around the world with a common interest in or love for Old English Sheepdogs can share information via e-mail. We welcome all OES owners, prospective owners, breeders, exhibitors or anyone else with an interest in the breed. Absolutely anything that has anything to do with Old English Sheepdogs may be discussed here, such as conformation, obedience, temperament, rescue, herding, agility, health issues, friendly chat, including all those stories your non "dog" friends might be tired of hearing, etc. We also hope to meet public education needs, foster ethical breeding practices and promote responsible dog ownership.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We are once again the victim of the Spam filters on many major ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

Many of our members are not finding the messages from the OES List in their mailbox. We, the list administrators are doing everything we can to help fix this. BUT, you need to help. It is the ISPs such as Verizon, Earthlink, BellSouth and many others are responsible for this happening and you as their customers are the only ones that they care about. I am personally not getting my messages thanks to Earthlink.

Please understand that we or your ISPs have no way to know that you are not getting your messages unless you tell us.

What I believe has happened in that these ISPs all use the same Spam Software called Brightmail from a company called Symantec. It is the same company that sells Norton Antivirus. This company has now twice (at least) decided that this list is Spam. And since (like when you update your vius definitions) it updates the "Spam Definitions" at all the ISPs, it is telling all of the ISPs to send the messages into the "Spam Trap".

You need to call your ISP and complain. PLEASE. Tell them that your messages that they are blocking are from an *opt-in* list, it is NOT Spam, and you want them to stop blocking your messages. If they tell you they cannot fix it, they either are uninformed or are lying. They can, and only they can. Try to talk to a supervisor, tell them you want to be upgraded to the next higher lever of support. There are usually 3 or 4 levels. The first level (the people who usually answer the phone) are the newest and usually least experienced. Try to get as high up the support "tree" as you can.

Please write to me and tell me if you are getting or not getting your messages, what ISP you are with, your experience with your ISP, and feel free to give any support people from your ISP my personal email address for any way that I can help.

To try and find your messages, you can try several different methods that may vary from ISP to ISP.

1. Turn off your spam filter until we get this fixed again. (I know that it will allow a LOT of junk in, but this is the easiest way to see your messages.)
2. Log into your Webmail for your ISP. If you have a box named "Known Spam" or something similar, look in there for your message. This box may have a control, that tells the ISP to either delete these messages immediately, or keep them for a short period of time so that you can search through the "junk" for your missing OES messages. Set this box *not* to delete the Known Spam immediately, When you find your messages in the Known Spam mailbox, many ISPs have a way for you to "check off" each of these messages and then hit a button that says "This Is NOT Spam". Do this. This will do two things ..... it will tell your ISP that these messages are NOT Spam AND it will move them to your Inbox for downloading or reading.
3. You can also log onto the OES-L server on the link at the top of this page and read the messages in our archives. The link is Archives. This is a good place to check anytime you think you might be missing messages.

To help .... PLEASE .... Take the time to read and do this .......

1. If you find your messages in your Spam box, do not just read them there and then delete them. This could lead to our messages still being defined as Spam.
2. Almost all of the ISPs have a way in their Known Spam box for your to designate (usually by putting a check mark in front of the message) which messages are NOT Spam. You then click on a button on the bottom of the page that says "This Is Not Spam". This tells the software at your ISP that it is making a mistake.
3. Please when deleting mail from your mailbox that you do not want to read, DO NOT casually mark a list message as Spam and think that it does not matter....... It does.

Feel free to write me directly and tell me what is happening ....... Thanks for you help and patience.

Jan Guthrie, part of the list administration team jan@buy-a-boat.com