The Garbage Chute Was a Really Wonderful Idea!

04:30 PM Feb 28, 2006

The spectrum-spanning consortium calling on AOL to reconsider fee-based Goodmail delivery debuted DearAOL.com just in time to soak up fanboy reaction to the ISP behemoth's instant-classic jibe that it's just "some disparate groups of advocates ... reminiscent of the bar scene in the first 'Star Wars' movie."

Computer controversy meets Star Wars references. Technorati will groan tonight under the heavy tread of banthas and probots.

If you signed the version of this petition hosted by DemocracyInAction, your signature appears at Dear AOL. If you haven't signed it, visit the new digs to do so. MoveOn has a good backgrounder on the whole matter, which AOL and Goodmail have been at pains to paint as not immediately affecting any current nonprofit bulk mailers. Good and well. But it's difficult to deny that this arrangement incentivizes AOL in a way that might lead it in the future -- for structural, bottom-line reasons rather than any personal wickedness -- to pucker up free whitelists tight as a drum and put more and more organizations to the quandary of money you can't afford to pay, or e-mail you can't afford to have junk-filtered, which serves neither good-faith mailers nor AOL's subscribers.

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