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Well that's the way it used to be.

Why then, given that both the hardware and software on which the Net is built continues to improve, are the chances that your emails will disappear into a black hole now higher than ever before?

There are two main reasons for this annoying situation.

The most common, and incredibly annoying roadblock to email delivery is the "content filter" software that is being increasingly used by corporations, schools and other organisations wishing to protect their users from things such as bad language.

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About once or twice a month I get an email returned to me with a little note saying that it was rejected by the recipient's mailserver because it contained an objectionable phrase or word.

Now let me be quite clear that I'm not the kind of person given to the use of profanity or offensive language.

It seems that very often, a completely innocuous word or part of a word is taken out of context by these really dumb content filtering programs -- which then proceed to bounce the message concerned.

Most of this software is "tuneable" to allow various levels of "preciousness" to be set but it seems that some companies have them wound right up so that even a mention of the word sextant will send them into a fit of apoplexy.

Schools and firms of accountants appear to be amongst the worst offenders in this regard. Now schools I can understand -- but are grown-up professionals really so sensitive that they can't be exposed to even the slightest hint of a naughty word?

The other barrier to reliable email communications are spam filters.

With spam growing at a seemingly exponential rate, some level of filtering seems almost essential these days. However, the problem is (once again) that computers are really stupid and sometimes they make mistakes -- assuming an email is spam when it might in fact be a genuine bonafide communication.

I know quite a number of people who have almost given up using email to distribute their newsletters because so many people complain they can't receive them due to the effects of their company or ISP's spam filtering.

So what good is a communications medium if you simply can't be sure that the messages you send aren't going to be swallowed up by well-intentioned but incredibly stupid filtering software?

As I've said before -- whoever comes up with a really viable alternative to email which is spam-proof but just as easy and practical as the email we currently use will make a fortune.

Can someone do this now -- please!

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