[FFML] [ADMIN] Server level changes instituted due to mail policy changes elsewhere

[Dennis Carr]

Heya.  Friendly neighborhood server op guy here. =)

For this one there's a short version and a longer version 

tl;dr: I am NOT ending the list; policy changes out on the internet at
large that I didn't get the memo on caused several bounces; server level
changes here have been instituted; also, if you want off the list,
please just unsubscribe, I won't sell your email.

So what's the skinny?

Well, first off - no, I'm not ending the list.  =)  If the time comes
that the server has to end, then I'll end the list at that point.

Recently, policies have been becoming more rampant on the internet at
large to prevent email spam - the long and short is that email
providers (me included) are bloody sick of this garbage and want it to
stop, so new standards at the admin level are always taking root.

Well...I didn't get the memo on how to institute one of them, and
suddenly several dozen of you got bounced out and mistaken for
unsolicited email, primarily on Yahoo's stuff.  The side effect is that
some of you were bounced out into no-mail mode.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming yahoo.com in the slightest.  I
don't blame them.  And frankly, I should have kept up on this - so I
bear at least some of the fault here as a server operator.)

One of the critical changes - called DMARC - have been implemented.  I
basically have to tell providers how they should handle mail that says
it comes from chez-vrolet.net but did not actually come from my
server.  Another change for the very near future will be DKIM, which
basically provides a public-private key exchange to further validate
email sources. (SPF, for what it's worth, is a little different - that's
more along the lines of telling receiving servers where email can be
expected to and/or is permitted to come from given a domain name.)

(For the curious, a quick search on your favorite search engine will
turn up information on DKIM, DMARC, and SPF.  If you don't run a
server, it's not something you ever need to really do anything with
beyond satisfying your curiousity - but your email provider likely
already has at least one of these implemented, so kudos on them. =^_^= )

I've cleared the no-mail bits from those who bounced out so
unexpectedly - so if you can read this, things are at least fixed on
that front.  Why it so suddenly happened is partially beyond my ability
to know, but it seemed a little bit random - it wasn't everyone on this
list who's on Yahoo or the addresses it now serves who were affected.

To that end, if it was because somebody reported this as spam, please
don't do that - the side effect is that people who *do* want this find
themselves not getting this.  It's worth noting that, one way or
another, you (the reader) had subscribed to this list at some point
in time over the past 20+ years this list has existed - it's a pretty
manual process, and somebody at the subscribing email address must
confirm that they did so by replying to a message following the
subscribe request.  (This has, in fact, been true for as long as I
remember through the various address changes I've gone through.  Even
when legacy addresses were brought in over here twelve years ago, it
was a list of addresses from anifics that was given to me.) So if you've
forgotten that you have subscribed in the past, then that's alright, it
happens - I do the same thing once in a while. But please, if you don't
want to be on this list, just unsubscribe - either through the web UI or
through an email to ffml-unsubscribe at chez-vrolet.net (please, not to
the list itself) - and expect to reply to the confirmation if you do so
through email.  To note, I will never sell your email address because
spammers disgust me as well.

If you have questions, comments, complaints, or anything else so
related, please ensure that the reply is sent directly to me
(dennisthetiger at chez-vrolet.net) or is sent to ffml-admins.  

Thanks, 
-Dennis 
(First human of Chez Vrolet Secret Labs, a keeper of the older
technology, support engineer of enterprise grade networks, fan of
dragons, lover of kitty cats, amateur Flemish painter, and irregular
customer of Starbucks who wishes his local espresso stand would sell
him a regular cup of black coffee)