Re: Google Gmail mailing list bounces

[Bob Proulx]

Noam Postavsky wrote:
> It seems that Google doesn't like something about Emanuel's emails, so
> it rejects them as spam (I notice that I sometimes do get messages
> from Emanuel, but they always land in the spam folder). Then
> help-gnu-emacs sees all the rejected messages and decides that the
> subscribed address is no good, and disables the subscription.

That is exactly correct.  The problem is sending domains that are
setting a strict DMARC policy.  And receiving sites are also setting a
strict DMARC policy.

https://wiki.list.org/DEV/DMARC discusses the woeful situation.

The current wisdom has appeared that mailing lists must perform what
the Mailman configuration calls a Munge From policy action.  Here is
what Mailman says about it.

  dmarc_moderation_action (privacy): Action to take when anyone posts to the 
list from a domain with a DMARC Reject/Quarantine Policy.
  Munge From -- applies the from_is_list Munge From transformation to these 
messages.
  Wrap Message -- applies the from_is_list Wrap Message transformation to these 
messages.
  Reject -- this automatically rejects the message by sending a bounce notice 
to the post's author. The text of the bounce notice can be configured by you.
  Discard -- this simply discards the message, with no notice sent to the 
post's author.

I have been avoiding it due to the invasive changes but just can't
postpone it any longer.  A few minutes ago I flipped this setting for
help-gnu-emacs to "Munge From".  The result is that all mail from the
mailing list where the sender has a strict DMARC policy will be
mangled to come from the mailing list address instead of the original
sender address.  This can be seen from Emanuel's latest emails where
it uses the mailing list for the mail address and replaces the name
field with the name followed by "via help-gnu-emacs".

Mailman then adds a Reply-To header back to the original sender.  For
this mailing list that is new.  I also think undesirable.  I feel
certain it will have the effect of many people posting getting a
direct reply back to them instead of back to the mailing list.  But
that is the Mailman setting and a consequence of the strict DMARC
policies of the sender.

Hopefully this will allow all of those people using email service
providers that have enabled strict DMARC policies to continue to make
use of the mailing list.

Bob

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