Road Runner FBL Changes Page

Your source for information on upcoming changes to Road Runner's Feedback Loop

Greetings.

If you're reading this page, it's probably because you have an interest in Road Runner's Feedback Loop program, and you've heard that we're planning on some big changes to our FBL; what you've heard is true, and this page will evolve over time to provide you with all the details you'll need to make the transition as seamless and painless as possible.

While our FBL is still frozen, the good news is that we're almost ready to launch our new FBL. We're currently running in a limited beta test mode (we already have our volunteer testers, and we're not looking for any more) and once that test is complete and we tie up a few loose ends, we'll be good to go.

While we still don't have a go-live date, nothing's changed with regard to our transition plan. The schedule remains as follows:

Now we'll discuss each key milestone a bit more in detail...

Spring 2009 - This is the new tentative go-live date for our new Feedback Loop program; we've hit some snags in the development process, and so we've had to push our deadline back from our original planned launch date. We won't go live before this date, but may go later, and we'll update the schedule as the date gets closer. What's most important to remember about the go-live date is that anyone wishing to participate in our Feedback Loop will have to (re-)enroll in the new Feedback Loop once it goes live; because there will be a defined formal Terms of Service as part of the new program, we will not and cannot migrate anyone from the old program to the new one.

Six weeks post-launch - This is the tentative date on which the old Feedback Loop will expire. In the interests of making the transition smooth for everyone, we're going to provide a period of several weeks after the new program is online when pre-existing registrations will still be honored, and the old spam complaint reports will still be sent. This means that we won't have to worry about a crush of registrations on the first day, and that everyone interested in the new FBL will have ample time to migrate themselves to it before the old one goes away for good. Given the anticipated increase in quality of the data available in our new FBL as compared to our existing one, it will be in every senders' interest to migrate to the new one as soon as possible, but the grace period will ensure that everyone has time to do it properly.

As we get closer to the launch of our new Feedback Loop, we're likely to share more information about it, and you should bookmark this page and check back here from time to time for status. Also, if you want to get email notification about our launch, and you're not already enrolled in our existing FBL contact us at rrfbl-questions@security.rr.com

FAQs

Q: What new services/data will your new Feedback Loop provide?
A: Full details on this will be announced at an appropriate time.

Q: Is it necessary to be enrolled in the Road Runner Feedback Loop to be able to send mail to Road Runner customers?
A: No. It's never been a requirement that one must be enrolled in our Feedback Loop in order to get mail to our customers, and it never will be a requirement. Our Feedback Loop has been and will be an enhanced service we provide to senders to give them information on how their mail is being perceived by Road Runner customers.

Q: Will the new Feedback Loop support ARF?
A: Yes; just as our current Feedback Loop sends reports in ARF format, our new one will as well. Moreover, it is extremely likely that ARF will be the only format available for reports in the new feedback loop. This is a change for us. With our present feedback loop, we default to ARF, but we've supported non-ARF reporting; our new Feedback Loop will almost certainly support only ARF as its format for reporting.

If you have other questions about this process, feel free to contact us at

          rrfbl-questions [at] security [dot] rr [dot] com
    

Thank you,

The Road Runner Postmaster Team