AOL Gets Fussy about HTML EMail

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

AOL has strict rules about what you can and can't use in HTML EMail.

For example...

Quote: Here are the HTML objects that are not supported by the AOL Client mail:

ActiveX
Audio
External Style Sheets
Frames and IFrames
Java
Meta Refresh
Scripts: JavaScript, VBScript, Perl, etc.
Tooltips
Video

For full information on AOL's EMail policies, see this page:
http://webmaster.info.aol.com/htmlemail.html

mjs416's picture

They have: 127 posts

Joined: Dec 2003

rtroxel wrote: AOL has strict rules about what you can and can't use in HTML EMail.

For example...

For full information on AOL's EMail policies, see this page:
http://webmaster.info.aol.com/htmlemail.html

All the more reason not to use it.

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Yeah, AOL is the worst to get and to send email to since they tend to act like 'as long as one AOL customer can send email to another AOL customer everything is fine'. There is absolutely no reason for some of things that they do. They always screw up the headers in emails both coming and going. Attachments oftentimes won't open. Gotta love AOL.

Always send out a text version with any HTML email to avoid this problem.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

mairving wrote: Always send out a text version with any HTML email to avoid this problem.

Either that or, always send out text emails Laughing out loud

Greg K's picture

He has: 2,145 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

Another reason I really respect a business web site listing "E-mail us at (comapny name)@aol.com."
-Greg

xxgeek's picture

He has: 17 posts

Joined: Jan 2004

Don't you know what AOL stands for?
Almost On Line LOL

He has: 1,758 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Grrr... AOL are a pain in the backside. The new version has a "report as spam" button in the email client, which means that rather than unsubscribing from your newsletter AOL users just click the big red button. This is fine, until AOL recieve more than a certain number of compaints cos then they block your newsletter completly and if you send email from the same server that hosts the site THAT gets blocked as well!

I've had no end of problems because of this!

Andy

Vincent Puglia's picture

They have: 634 posts

Joined: Dec 1999

Hi,

As an ex-AOLer ( I've recently moved over to a cable ISP [which means my site GrassBlade is in the process of being shut down (: ] ), I can attest to many, if not most, of the comments above. It's my belief that many of the restrictions imposed are not haphazard, but rather deliberate decisions to safeguard AOL's servers and 'reputation' as 'easy-to-use' and 'safe'. Consider: by disallowing activeX, etc in emails, their customers cannot plant/propogate viruses (at least not through the AOL mail server).

Vinny

Where the world once stood
the blades of grass cut me still

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

Now I'm having hassles with Comcast and AOL spam/virus blocking.

Very often my email won't download through the email app (Outlook Express), and instead I get a message that the server can't be contacted. If I use Internet Explorer and go directly to my mail account on the Comcast website, I can open the mail from there. Usually there are one or two spam emails with an attachment of some sort. These I delete.

The problem is that sometimes the email attachments are legit, but they still get blocked. The same thing happens when I send email with attachments to users on AOL.

In either case, I'm still getting up to 75% spam email daily, so their blocking techniques aren't working, anyway.

I've been reading articles on this subject, and I'm thinking about contacting Comcast and AOL. From what I've read lately, other broadband systems are having similar problems, but Comcast stands out in particular.

For a lively discussion about Comcast's spam problem, check this page:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/42385

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