[Mailman-Users] gmail

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Bernie Cosell writes:

 > I've gotten buried by 80 bounce messages, thanks to gmail's new
 > policy [that was, apparently, put into effect yesterday].  The
 > bounces say:

Can you provide more information about this, or are you deducing a new
policy from the sudden spate of bounces?  I ask because

 >     Please visit 421-4.7.0
 >     https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126#authentication for more
 >     421- 4.7.0 information.
 > 
 > I looked at their 'answer' and mostly found it to be unhelpful.

That's at least partly because it's bog-standard best-practice advice,
and I see no evidence that anything in that document has changed
recently.

While it certainly could be a Google policy issue, this kind of thing
is known to be caused sometimes by several other factors (eliminate
any that just don't apply to you, of course):

1.  One (usually more for Google) of your list posts actually was spam
    or otherwise abusive.

2.  A group of your subscribers at Gmail took serious offense to
    something posted and reported to Gmail simultaneously.

3.  One or more users on another list served by your host did
    something remarkably abusive and the whole domain was marked as a
    bad/incompetent actor.

4.  A DNS-related snafu made it look like your whole IP block was
    transferred to a group full of abusers, even though nothing bad
    has happened in your own IP.

5.  4chan mischief.

6.  Having mentioned 4chan, let's go right off the deep and mention
    "Cozy Bear" and the ilk.  (That's a joke unless you're #natsec
    relevant, 4chan, unfortunately, while *very* unlikely is a
    possibility.)

1, 2, and 3 you can sometimes do something about, including getting in
touch with Google, reporting that "this happened", and explaining why
"it won't happen again" (in case 3, "not my list's fault").  Google is
awfully big and may not care about you, but miracles do happen and 10
minutes writing an email to them might work one.  YMMV, of course.

 > I certainly can't get any server anywhere to change their their
 > system configuration,

Of course you can, for values of "you" == "all you users of the
system."  Remember, if you are having a problem due to a change in
Google policy, most likely many others are as well.  If you are a
first reporter and do so in a measured tone, your credibility gets a
boost.  I don't deny that there are BOFHs and incompetent services out
there, and all I can advise about them is "move" (which may not be a
reasonable choice, YMMV).

Obviously this route is unlikely to get fast action; I'm recommending
it as an investment in the future.  As usual, YMMV.

Steve