For background. I registered a free subdomain with CJB.net -- and with that, I get a email address root. That means that any mail that is sent to [anything]@thataintright.cjb.net should -- in theory -- be forwarded to my mailbox. I only put this into use when I discovered I'd have to change my email address, which was twice over the past year -- First when I switched from a dial-up ISP to a cable broadband ISP, and more recently when that cable ISP decided to run internet service themselves instead of contracting it out to AOL-TW's Road Runner. With the number of people I know, lists I subscribe to, message boards I don't post to, I find it easier to change one setting at CJB than well all of those other places.
Now, the problem is, this past week, I stopped recieving notifications for when people posted comments to the journal. I don't check the journal every day, so I didn't notice until KG via AIM told me offhand that someone left a comment. This is particularly odd since I recieve every other notice from LJ. Of course, natually I assumed it was a problem with LJ, since this was the week that whatever hamster that runs the service kept having a coronary event.With LJ, I vacilate between thinking that I've been ripped off since I shelled out $25, and thinking that they should charge more for the service.
(Well, this is markedly better than how I fell about Spaceports -- I just feel ripped off for paying them $20. Their problems are well beyond the point where more money can solve them. That is one reason I seldom update the other weblog. I always end up messageboard tag with ersatz tech support -- other customers with the misfortune to host their sites on Spaceports. All this because I had to have free access to perl!)
After harassment of the LJ support team and of the journal itself, I had to rule them out. Actually, I ruled them out when after I changed the primary email address to Cox, my cable ISP, not only did recieved my notifications, I recieved the confirmation email sent to CJB.net. (This also aquitted Cox Communications.)
So, now my last suspect is CJB.net -- and in the grand tradition of every tech support group I had dealt with, they denied that there was a problem. Well, they denied the problem after leaving me waiting for about 4 days.(I know -- another benefit of paying for this stuff is the ability to yell at someone in real time, rather than by email, the carrier pigeon of the internet.) "We don't filter any messages, unless they are over 1MB or have an executable attachment. Are you sure that thee messages were sent. Maybe you are mistaken about the emssages being sent." Now I'm in the middle of carrier pigeon messaging with CJB.net which will only serve to frustrate everyone, without hope for a resolution in sight.
A simple solution would be to buy a domain for myself, but that really an option for someone who scours the house for pennies so he can eat lunch. A simpler solution would be to just set my email address for LJ back to my inbox directly, but that would negate the very reason I have for the cjb.net address. I definitely don't use cjb.net because of its attractiveness.
All of this makes me wonder whether it is even worth the hassle! In the end, it will be I who will turn out to be the loser.