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Running mail is complex, and maybe it’s not the best use of your time personally. But please stop dissuading engineers from attempting to run their own mail in

Running mail is complex, and maybe it’s not the best use of your time personally. But please stop dissuading engineers from attempting to run their own mail infrastructure if desired. More people getting familiar with how reliable email systems work is a good thing. With regard to sending mail, a few things go a long way. Check your IPs on dnsbls before sending email from them. Don't expect to send mail successfully from a public cloud address. have at least one backup mail system that isn't listed in any dnsbl. Use separate IP addresses for transactional email, user email and bulk email. Deploy SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domains.

deltarholamda 5y ago
Totally agree. I think nearly everybody of the HN stripe should run an email server, if only on a vanity domain. There has to be some kind of pushback against centralizing email among Google, Microsoft, et al. Email is fundamental to the open Internet. It's the "killer app," as they used to say in ye olden tymes. It does not belong to 3-4 international corporations, it belongs to us. The article pooh-poohs iRedmail and some others, and while he's not wrong, I can say that iRedmail is about as close as you can get to learning all about the inner workings of a mail delivery system and still be reasonably one-click install. It is opinionated to some degree, but it doesn't lock you in. I've used it for years and have been happy. Unfortunately, delivery problems (as the author noted) meant I have to use Mailgun for their relay service. I think this is a fight we should continue to have. It's worth it.
- nickdothutton 5y ago
  I feel the same way. I wonder if users of hackernews would be interested in a community (semi)Pubnix and email service. Traditional multiuser system with thousands of concurrent users catered for and all the “old” services plus some new ones.
  - lambdaba 5y ago
    Would this be like a modern sdf.org? Sounds cool.
lowwave 5y ago
Don't forget rDNS.
0xbadcafebee 5y ago
> But please stop dissuading engineers from attempting to run their own mail infrastructure if desired. I don't think we're trying to dissuade them. I think we're fighting the insidious memes of "Look, it's easy! I did it in 5 minutes!" which perpetuates a potentially hazardous misunderstanding. If you don't do e-mail right, you can end up sending or receiving an important piece of official mail that nobody will ever read. Job offers gone unseen, billing reminders turned invisible, customer service tickets lost, warranty redemption missed, urgent family notices not gotten in time, etc. We're just saying it's much more nuanced and unintuitive than just turning on the software. It's like the blind leading the blind: somebody's going to end up in a pit. We're putting caution tape around the pit. They can still choose to go under it and explore.

deltarholamda 5y ago

Totally agree. I think nearly everybody of the HN stripe should run an email server, if only on a vanity domain. There has to be some kind of pushback against centralizing email among Google, Microsoft, et al. Email is fundamental to the open Internet. It's the "killer app," as they used to say in ye olden tymes. It does not belong to 3-4 international corporations, it belongs to us. The article pooh-poohs iRedmail and some others, and while he's not wrong, I can say that iRedmail is about as close as you can get to learning all about the inner workings of a mail delivery system and still be reasonably one-click install. It is opinionated to some degree, but it doesn't lock you in. I've used it for years and have been happy. Unfortunately, delivery problems (as the author noted) meant I have to use Mailgun for their relay service. I think this is a fight we should continue to have. It's worth it.

nickdothutton 5y ago
I feel the same way. I wonder if users of hackernews would be interested in a community (semi)Pubnix and email service. Traditional multiuser system with thousands of concurrent users catered for and all the “old” services plus some new ones.
- lambdaba 5y ago
  Would this be like a modern sdf.org? Sounds cool.

lowwave 5y ago

Don't forget rDNS.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago

> But please stop dissuading engineers from attempting to run their own mail infrastructure if desired. I don't think we're trying to dissuade them. I think we're fighting the insidious memes of "Look, it's easy! I did it in 5 minutes!" which perpetuates a potentially hazardous misunderstanding. If you don't do e-mail right, you can end up sending or receiving an important piece of official mail that nobody will ever read. Job offers gone unseen, billing reminders turned invisible, customer service tickets lost, warranty redemption missed, urgent family notices not gotten in time, etc. We're just saying it's much more nuanced and unintuitive than just turning on the software. It's like the blind leading the blind: somebody's going to end up in a pit. We're putting caution tape around the pit. They can still choose to go under it and explore.