> Does anyone know HOW to find out for sure
> your "status" with these people?

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately, it's a moving target.

I did some research last summer, and found, among other things, that:

ISP's use various lists to determine whether to deliver mail or not. These include Spamcop, RBL (a black-hole list, and ORDB (Open Relay Database).

Criteria for inclusion are very broad. YOU may be the spammer, your PROVIDER may have hosted a spammer, your PROVIDER may have hosted sites that sell spamming tools, or your PROVIDER may be set up to cater to spammers.

(Please note that my use of 'you' and 'your' are generic.)

I began looking into this back then because the mail from very respected sources was being marked by Mailwasher as spam. Mailwasher also indicated the source of the marking, i.e., the list used to compare the incoming mail address to.

Be aware that these lists are looking at every 'hop' between you and the sender, so, while you and your sender are perfectly innocent, if an 'offending' site was one of the 'hops,' "no mail for you!

My provider doesn't "help" me by filtering my mail. Mailwasher lets me view what's on the ISP's server then decide whether to override it's labeling. Consequently, I have a long list of sites from which I receive mail that are labeled "friend."

My intention was to write to each sender and tell him about the labeling, but the list grew too long. As well, I'd discovered the other stuff that would have been problematic for the senders to resolve anyway.

I have had to mark as friends Ehotsheet, Phil Wiley's newsletter, Missouri congressional voting records, Willie Crawford, several technical newsletters I receive, Joe Vitale, Jim Straw, and a host of others.

Then I tried to study each piece of correspondence to determine what kinds of things the senders could do to improve chances that their mail to me would be delivered. Life got in the way, and I let it go for the moment.

I may resume looking into this as time permits.

For now, I'm afraid that the real answer to your question is no, -er, maybe, -uh who knows?

Marye