Frequently Asked Questions
regarding the daily email from Meridian Magazine

I signed up for the daily e-mail send but I'm not receiving any e-mails. Why not?
There are a multitude of reasons why you may not be receiving our e-mail. The most common is that your Internet Service Provider (ISP, like AOL, MSN, Cox, Earthlink, etc.) probably reads the email that we are sending as spam or unwanted, unsolicited email. Because of the overwhelming spamming that is going on now on the Internet, ISP's are constantly developing software solutions (such as Hotmail's automatic Junk Mailbox) that stop certain types of e-mail from coming through before the end user (that's YOU) ever sees them. In most cases that does help keep the clutter out of your Inbox, however, it may also interpret Meridian's daily send as spam and automatically dump it in the junkbox or delete it altogether.

What, Meridian could be considered a spammer?
Yes, a software-based spam blocker may indeed read Meridian as spam. Even though Meridian is known as a "double-opt-in subcription service" we still get hit by these software solutions. We do not send e-mail to people who have not requested it. But anyone who sends out large amounts of e-mail, as we do six days a week, can have difficulty creating it so that it is not tagged as spam before it reaches your Inbox.

Why are these e-mails tagged as spam by Internet Service Providers? Shouldn't they just be tagging spam only?
It is very difficult for software to distinguish between legitimate, wanted e-mail, such as Meridian's daily send, and unwanted spam. It can be as simple as having five asterisks ( ***** ) in a row in the send or even the color of the text. Meridian is currently working with ISP's and with anti-spamming companies to redesign, if necessary, parts of the daily send so that it may get through to the subscribers who have requested it. Anti-Spam software improves greatly as time goes on but spammers are continually finding new and clever ways to get around anti-spam software. It is an arms race that never seems to end.

I recently installed some spam filtering software on my computer. Is that why I'm no longer receiving your daily e-mail?
Very likely, yes. Please consult your anti-spam software to find out how to set up rules to allow the e-mail you desire to receive (such as that from Meridian) to come through your system. Usually this is a very simple process and as you take a few minutes to work with them, you will help assure getting Meridian's daily e-mail as you have requested.

I don't have anti-spam software on my computer. What can I do to get my ISP to allow Meridian's e-mails to me?
You will need to contact your Internet Service Provider support (usually there is a CONTACT US button at the top or the bottom of the ISP's homepage) to let them know you want e-mail from Scot & Maurine Proctor, lists@meridianmagazine.com and meridianmagazine.com. There is usually a simple solution and this should not take too long with them. Be persistent with them. Keep copies of any e-mails you send to your ISP concerning this so that you have a record of your communications. If conditions don't change, contact them again and again until they do. Remember, computers do whatever they're programmed to do--and people program computers!

Is there another way to get my e-mail if, after all I have done, my ISP will not allow your daily e-mail to come through (I love the executive-summary style of the daily send)?
Yes. On the right hand column (sash) of the front page every day (www.ldsmag.com) is a link for the "Executive Summary" of today's news and features. This is the same as the daily e-mail that we send out each day.

use this link from the front page to
get the daily email each day

Can you provide me with specific instructions on how to work with Hotmail or AOL (or whoever my ISP is), and/or at least provide me with some hotlinks to where I may find out specific information about allowing the daily send from Meridian to come through directly to my Inbox?
Out technology team will be constantly updating this page of FAQ's so that we may provide you with as much information as we can possibly obtain to help solve this problem of not receiving Meridian's send that you have requested to receive. Keep checking back and we will obtain hotlinks and the contact information for as many of the ISP's as we can.