Venting about Earthlink's Method of Spam Control

I know this has nothing per se to do with mechanical music, but it is
something which I encounter all too often when e-mailng people about
mechanical music matters.

While Google's Gmail and many other email clients have excellent and
effective methods of filtering spam, Earthlink's method is to send you
an automatic response to the first email you send to an Earthlink user
which requires you to identify yourself before Earthlink will pass your
email on.

Am I the only one who finds this annoying?  Is it an elective option
that Earthlink users may choose or forego?  I visited Earthlink's web
site to see whether there was a place to express dissatisfaction with
their methodology.  But the only service offered to a non-subscriber
is that of subscribing.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York

 [ Each week we receive "bounce messages" from subscribers' ISPs that
 [ state that MMDigest was not delivered because it contains spam or
 [ a virus.  Even more annoying is that my reply is also rejected when
 [ the subscriber writes to ask "where's my MMDigest"!
 [
 [ Readers should verify that their "white list" of correspondents
 [ includes all the current MMDigest email addresses at the end of
 [ this page.
 [
 [ -- Robbie