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I self-host for 20+ years, the last 12 years on Hetzner. Did some transactional mailings as well professionally. Not spam, but forum notifications, mailing list

I self-host for 20+ years, the last 12 years on Hetzner. Did some transactional mailings as well professionally. Not spam, but forum notifications, mailing lists. 2007..2014 were probably the worst. Gmail was chainging often, Microsoft was blocking everyone. I think self-hosting is easier now than 10 years ago.

ryandrake 5y ago
I self-host on Linode, and they occasionally fall into UCEPROTECT level 3 (the ISP-wide blocklist), likely due to a spammer trying to set up business as a Linode client. You can't really do much about ISP-wide blocklists, and honestly mail servers should not aggressively reject E-mail simply because some other rando at the ISP sends spam. I've always had success working with the aggressive mail server admin to get unblocked. Often it's just an E-mail to provider-abuse@provider.com
- bsder 5y ago
  > honestly mail servers should not aggressively reject E-mail simply because some other rando at the ISP sends spam This is because the business department will try to force admins to ignore requests to remove spammers as the spammers generally pay decent money. By blocking everyone, it forces the ISP to get off their ass and kill the spammer irrespective of how much they are willing to pay.
  - selcuka 5y ago
    Technically true, but UCEPROTECT, in particular, is known to have some shady practices: https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/02/uceprotect-when-rbls-go-bad.html https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/02/uceprotect-when-rbls-go-bad....
    - ryandrake 5y ago
      They come across as pretty scummy: "Yea, we put your whole VPS provider in our blocklist. It's their fault for having one spammer customer: Blame them! By the way there's nothing you can do about it--except of course pay us to be whitelisted..."
    - bsder 5y ago
      No argument. But I see this as vindication. ISPs are now so sensitive to not allowing spammers that the RBLs can't make money from it anymore.

ryandrake 5y ago

I self-host on Linode, and they occasionally fall into UCEPROTECT level 3 (the ISP-wide blocklist), likely due to a spammer trying to set up business as a Linode client. You can't really do much about ISP-wide blocklists, and honestly mail servers should not aggressively reject E-mail simply because some other rando at the ISP sends spam. I've always had success working with the aggressive mail server admin to get unblocked. Often it's just an E-mail to provider-abuse@provider.com

bsder 5y ago
> honestly mail servers should not aggressively reject E-mail simply because some other rando at the ISP sends spam This is because the business department will try to force admins to ignore requests to remove spammers as the spammers generally pay decent money. By blocking everyone, it forces the ISP to get off their ass and kill the spammer irrespective of how much they are willing to pay.
- selcuka 5y ago
  Technically true, but UCEPROTECT, in particular, is known to have some shady practices: https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/02/uceprotect-when-rbls-go-bad.html https://blog.sucuri.net/2021/02/uceprotect-when-rbls-go-bad....
  - ryandrake 5y ago
    They come across as pretty scummy: "Yea, we put your whole VPS provider in our blocklist. It's their fault for having one spammer customer: Blame them! By the way there's nothing you can do about it--except of course pay us to be whitelisted..."
  - bsder 5y ago
    No argument. But I see this as vindication. ISPs are now so sensitive to not allowing spammers that the RBLs can't make money from it anymore.