5 ms·

I send a LOT of emails each month (email newsletter business - yes, legit!) and ran into an separate but topically related and amusing problem recently. My new

I send a LOT of emails each month (email newsletter business - yes, legit!) and ran into an separate but topically related and amusing problem recently. My newsletters are aimed at developers, and one issue went out and was considered by Gmail to be a 'phishing' attempt. I couldn't figure it out. Several issues later, another one was picked up the same way and I figured it out.. In both issues, one of the items was linking to domains that looked a bit like this "www.0x10abcdef.com" (this is NOT the actual domain) - basically a domain that looked like a hexadecimal number. I ran numerous tests and Gmail always considered mails with links to domains like this to be phishing attempts. I reported this as a bug (since nothing was wrong or reported with the domains in question, it was basically Gmail's filter being in error) but no idea if it was ever resolved.

brobinson 11y ago
It's probably specifically penalizing anything matching /https?:\/\/0/ because you can specify an IP address using hex or octal in most common browsers. hex: http://0xD83AC02E http://0xD83AC02E octal: http://033016540056 http://033016540056 That's my guess, at any rate.
- petercooper 11y ago
  Yes, URLs like that are commonly used in phishing emails, so that's my hunch as well. They're just not recognizing that such strings can appear in domains so I suspect it's a simple bug but probably not one they'll fix.
- hobarrera 11y ago
  OT: What does the red-flower-on-the-sun doodle mean?
  - deadbeef404 11y ago
    Argentina National Day 2015 Edit: You can usually find out what they mean by going to https://www.google.com/doodles https://www.google.com/doodles
MichaelCrawford 11y ago
I plan to build a developer mailing list but am hesitant to actually do so because all the advice I read tells me to do things that I personally find morally reprehensible. tl;dr: I would blackhole my own mailserver. Have you any advice for me? Im planning to use confirmation as is done by free software mailing lists but my concern is how to flog my website without offending anyone by flogging my website.
- pki 11y ago
  use mailchimp or sendgrid or sailthru instead of self hosting it.
  - MichaelCrawford 11y ago
    If I include graphics in my mail, are the graphics hosted by an http server or included in each mail?
    - pki 11y ago
      it is generally up to you, you can inline them (MIME/base64? in the message) or remotely serve. it'll usually serve remote http pixels for "open tracking" either way though
      - MichaelCrawford 11y ago
        That's my whole point. I regard such tracking pixels as morally reprehensible. While I know most of my subscribers will disable remote images anyway, quite likely they would think poorly of me for serving them. All the stuff I read about email marketing is all about all the kewel things one can do with email bugs.
        pki 11y ago
        consider using your own software, but relaying through mailgun then. dumb relay, other than bounce management and notifications it won't try to append garbage to your messages.

brobinson 11y ago

It's probably specifically penalizing anything matching /https?:\/\/0/ because you can specify an IP address using hex or octal in most common browsers. hex: http://0xD83AC02E http://0xD83AC02E octal: http://033016540056 http://033016540056 That's my guess, at any rate.

petercooper 11y ago
Yes, URLs like that are commonly used in phishing emails, so that's my hunch as well. They're just not recognizing that such strings can appear in domains so I suspect it's a simple bug but probably not one they'll fix.
hobarrera 11y ago
OT: What does the red-flower-on-the-sun doodle mean?
- deadbeef404 11y ago
  Argentina National Day 2015 Edit: You can usually find out what they mean by going to https://www.google.com/doodles https://www.google.com/doodles

MichaelCrawford 11y ago

I plan to build a developer mailing list but am hesitant to actually do so because all the advice I read tells me to do things that I personally find morally reprehensible. tl;dr: I would blackhole my own mailserver. Have you any advice for me? Im planning to use confirmation as is done by free software mailing lists but my concern is how to flog my website without offending anyone by flogging my website.

pki 11y ago
use mailchimp or sendgrid or sailthru instead of self hosting it.
- MichaelCrawford 11y ago
  If I include graphics in my mail, are the graphics hosted by an http server or included in each mail?
  - pki 11y ago
    it is generally up to you, you can inline them (MIME/base64? in the message) or remotely serve. it'll usually serve remote http pixels for "open tracking" either way though
    - MichaelCrawford 11y ago
      That's my whole point. I regard such tracking pixels as morally reprehensible. While I know most of my subscribers will disable remote images anyway, quite likely they would think poorly of me for serving them. All the stuff I read about email marketing is all about all the kewel things one can do with email bugs.
      - pki 11y ago
        consider using your own software, but relaying through mailgun then. dumb relay, other than bounce management and notifications it won't try to append garbage to your messages.