Live data from Hacker News

Why does Gmail hate my domain?

bitbin.de

51–60 of 149 posts

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#51
post #14
post #3

If the domain is bitbin.de and the mail server is hosted on the same server, it's probably Hetzner being scorched-earth for deliverability, just like any other major hosting provider will be. Email from AWS, Rackspace, Heroku etc. get a drastically higher starting spam score because people fire up servers there to spam. Running the email through something like Amazon SES or Mandrill would probably be helpful. Both ha…

I run a server on Hetzner that sends maybe 100k messages a week, and appears to have no problems with delivery. It doesn't even have SPF or DKIM set up. And I'm pretty sure that if messages were not getting delivered, users would complain. At least that's exactly what happened the one time there was a configuration screwup [1] that made some email providers reject mail from that server. So I don't know if that theory…

> I run a server on Hetzner that sends maybe 100k messages a week, and appears to have no problems with delivery.

That volume (assuming non-spammy content, of course) would over time build up a positive reputation for your IPs, outbound addresses, and content.

A new or low-volume IP on Hetzner is going to have a harder time overcoming the initial suspicion Gmail saddles it with.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#52

>What can I do except move to a hosted provider ? To answer your question about what you can do, you can send mail to Google legal asking them to accept your mail gmail users - just copy your whole blog post, I'm sure they'll action it right away: Antitrust is serious business. (They already have trouble in the EU for it - https://www.google.com/search?q=antitrust+eu+google - by the way I think it's completely unfoun…

Antitrust is serious business, but seeing as there is no clear antitrust issue here, I'm not sure what you think getting lawyers involved will accomplish other than making it impossible to help you since your case is now an impending legal action.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the IP against the spam blacklists: http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx You might have to spin up a bunch of servers to find one which doesn't have a blacklisted IP. Then you have to build the IP's "reputation" with the various providers before you can send a significant amount of email through it.

Thanks, I just assumed their whole block would be blacklisted. I'll try some more.

Not blacklisted, just treated with higher suspicion by default.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#54
post #23

I hit a similar problems when sending automated internal emails to a Google Groups address at my company. The problem was fixed by adding the following footer: "To unsubscribe, email ."

Uh oh. I created an "unsubscribe" filter a while ago to get rid of spam. It's been great for keeping my inbox clean but I just don't see stuff with an unsubscribe line anymore.

It's not a good idea to manually create filters that 100% block. You can't think of all the special cases like this.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#55
post #23

I hit a similar problems when sending automated internal emails to a Google Groups address at my company. The problem was fixed by adding the following footer: "To unsubscribe, email ."

Wow I have to try this trick. I have endless problems with some emails going missing (hotmail and the rest of microsoft’s domains are the worst).

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#56
post #48

Notice the comment on the story: "I had the exact same problems in the past. For me it helped just to register and immediately cancel a trial of Google Apps for the domain. It’s annoying to have this as a necessary step but at least it was like that done in just a few minutes (after I tried to find a contact email of Google for a much longer time). I tried it because I had other domains on the same server which didn’…

Thanks, may have to pay Google the $5 (or thereabouts?) to host my mail for a month and consider it a cost of freedom from them long term.

After 2+ years of hosting my domain myself, it doesn't seem possible to build up enough reputation with them personally.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#57
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own cousin blackholed my gmail because gmail sends so mych spam. I had to ask him to configure an exception just for me. If you dont want to receive spam use lafn.org. I dont know how one gets an account there but I expect it doesnt cost anything. If you want a full VPS use http://prgmr.com/ - "we dont assume you are stupid.". Its a hosting service operated by neckbeards for the benefit of their fellow neckbeards.…

Sort of off topic, but I saw an ad for prgrmr.com on a Safeway checkout conveyer belt divider in Mountain View, CA On Shoreline road near Google. I was wondering how effective this advertising has been.

I am going to give Luke The Smackdown.

I have devoted years to beating a clue about marketing through his pointy skull but then he complains that he has to take contract comouter janitor work to pay his data center.

I expect he shops at that dame Safeway.

The way he needs to market was established in the 1960s by the stanford alumni association but Luke refuses to Read The Fine Manual.

He knows all about Open Source though.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to also be the case with DO, I setup a mail server on an instance there and can't escape people's spam boxes.

Check the IP against the spam blacklists: http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx You might have to spin up a bunch of servers to find one which doesn't have a blacklisted IP. Then you have to build the IP's "reputation" with the various providers before you can send a significant amount of email through it.

These days, there are only a handful of IP-based blacklists where a listing result in more than low single-digit impact to your delivery rate; moreover, among industry insiders, Gmail isn't known to use any public IP-based blacklist for deliverability.

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#59
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

use mailchimp or sendgrid or sailthru instead of self hosting it.

If I include graphics in my mail, are the graphics hosted by an http server or included in each mail?

Re: Why does Gmail hate my domain?

#60
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you run your own MDA, you could do a lot worse than to filter incoming mail against https://www.spamhaus.org/zen/ ; the free tier is extremely broad, and the coverage is excellent -- I get maybe one spam email a week, tops.

I'm also happy with Spamhaus Zen generally, but spam sent via Gmail is one category of email it won't stop, since it only blacklists pure spam sources, and Gmail is obviously a legitimate mailhost. I get a steady trickle of spam from Gmail addresses, mostly SEO-consultant spammers who grabbed my email from the whois info.

I dont regard SEO consultants as spammers.

Whenever they solicit me I respond immediately with links to my own SEO articles. Of course the very best SEO is for ones own website to go viral at an SEO board.

One enterprising young South Asian was obviously a clueless newbie so I gave my reply a great deal of care. A few hours later he responded with:

"You are my SEO master."

I dontbreally offer SEO consulting but to claim that I do results in lots of Google Juice.

Post reply on HN