Updates

This is a update of for the General category.

As you may know, TFL has been having a number of problems with sending e-mail to Hotmail.com addresses. After further investigation of this problem we have decided to ban the use of Hotmail.com addresses (and its sub-services, hotmail.co.uk; msn.com; live.com). This will affect all applications sent after Sunday May 20, 2007, and all future forms sent by Hotmail users.

Our issues with Hotmail are long-standing and no satisfactory resolution is currently in sight. Since we can not guarantee that TFL e-mails will reach our visitors, and because we have tried all viable solutions to fix this problem, we feel that banning Hotmail addresses is the only solution available to us.

We are in the process of informing fanlisting owners with Hotmail.com e-mail addresses of our problems with the service and how this will affect future interaction with TFL. If you do have a Hotmail.com e-mail address we request that you update your e-mail address at the Network as quickly as possible and supply us with a valid, working non-Hotmail address to list your current and upcoming fanlistings under.

To do this, please e-mail us at emailchanges@thefanlistings.org FROM your current Hotmail.com account, and include your new e-mail address in the body of your e-mail. Please do not use the Change E-mail forms — there is no guarantee that they will send you the appropriate verification e-mail. Please e-mail us directly from your TFL Hotmail account.

If you choose to keep your fanlistings under your Hotmail.com address:

• You risk not receiving important network notices regarding your fanlisting and network changes.
• You will not be able to apply for new fanlistings. Hotmail.com addresses will be rejected by our application form.
• TFL will not take responsibility for non-delivery of TFL e-mail to your inbox. For example, if your fanlistings are troubled and the troubles notice does not arrive in your inbox due to our problems with Hotmail, TFL will not be held responsible if your fanlistings are removed from the network when no troubles response is received from you.

Please Note: We have done our best to contact the 890 Hotmail users listed in our database. If you have not received an urgent notice from TFL regarding Hotmail usage, then your e-mail address bounced for reasons related to: account inactivity, full mailbox, or invalid address.

We have included a full text copy of the e-mail behind the cut for those of you who have not received this message.

Dear Fanlisting Owner,

We are contacting you regarding a problem The Fanlistings Network is having with Hotmail, MSN and LIVE e-mail accounts. It is ESSENTIAL that you read below for more details as this will affect you and the fanlistings you have listed at TheFanlistings.org.

A) Problems with Hotmail, MSN and LIVE accounts
B) Hotmail, MSN and LIVE accounts BANNED from future use
C) Request for Hotmail/MSN/LIVE users to change their TFL-listed e-mail
D) Risks if you do not change your TFL-listed e-mail
E) What happens to my current pending forms?
F) Other important changes that effect you

A) Problems with Hotmail, MSN and LIVE accounts

As you may know, TFL has been having a number of problems with sending e-mail to Hotmail.com addresses. At present, only 60% of our e-mail arrives at Hotmail.com addresses. We have tried working with Hotmail to resolve this, but we have not been able to reach 100% deliverability of our mail.

B) Hotmail, MSN and LIVE accounts BANNED from future use

It is very important that TFL staff members are able to contact all fanlistings owners when necessary. Since we cannot guarantee that our e-mail will arrive in Hotmail inboxes, we have decided to BAN future use of Hotmail.com, hotmail.co.uk, msn.com, and live.com addresses for those wishing to apply for fanlistings, or list them with us.

Effective immediately, applying for fanlistings using Hotmail and its related e-mail services has been disabled.

This action is a last resort, and not taken lightly. All TFL e-mail must have the best chance it can of arriving in your inbox so that you do not miss troubles notices, network announcements and other important TFL notices.

C) Request for Hotmail/MSN/LIVE users to change their TFL-listed e-mail

We are informing you of this development as you currently have fanlistings listed under a Hotmail.com e-mail address. We are asking that owners of these addresses provide us with an alternative contact e-mail from another service. This address will replace your Hotmail address in our database, and become the new address your fanlistings are listed under.

To change your TFL-listed e-mail, please:
1. REPLY to this e-mail or send an e-mail (from your TFL Hotmail account) to emailchanges@thefanlistings.org
2. Include your name, and the new e-mail address you would like your fanlistings listed under.
— Your new e-mail address must not be from Hotmail
— Your new e-mail address must be a working, valid e-mail address. Please have it set up before you contact us.

D) Risks if you do not change your TFL-listed e-mail

If you choose to keep your fanlistings listed under your Hotmail address, you may not receive future e-mails from TFL regarding your fanlistings. This means that in the case where one of your fanlistings is placed on the troubles list, and the troubles e-mail to your Hotmail account does not arrive, your fanlisting may be removed from the Network when no response is received.

We want to be has helpful as possible, but continued listing of TFL fanlistings under Hotmail addresses is done at your own risk. TFL will not accept responsibility for non-deliverability of any future e-mails to Hotmail.com addresses.

E) What happens to my current pending forms?

We are processing TFL forms for Hotmail.com users as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Hotmail is blocking many of our e-mail addresses, while not blocking others at all. This means that it will take time for us to process pending Hotmail forms. We are working on them right now, and we hope to have them done quickly.

You WILL receive a response to your current pending contact forms, but your patience is requested while we work on getting your forms processed.

F) Other important information regarding this situation

Your forms will be processed by staff members who use e-mail clients such as Thunderbird and Outlook. These staff members will be contacting you via their ISP’s outgoing mail servers to ensure that form replies make it to your inbox. Not all staffers have the ability to do this, so all Hotmail contact forms are being sent to those who do.

If you receive e-mail from TFL, it is because it is being sent from an unblocked address, or by a staffer who is using their ISP’s mail servers to contact you. Due to this, you may be contacted by staffers who do not staff the category you contacted. They are acting on behalf of the category/staffer you initially contacted.

We apologize for this continuing problem with Hotmail. We are working hard to ensure that it does not happen again, and really do appreciate your patience in this matter, and we are sorry that the only solution at this time is for you to supply an alternative e-mail address. Please understand that if there were another solution, we would choose it first. There simply isn’t one available to us at this time.

If you have any questions or concerns about this situation, we encourage you to talk to us. You can either e-mail us ( seniorstaff@thefanlistings.org ) or post on the message board. We will do our best to answer your questions and make this transition as easy as possible.

Thank you!