I’m no longer dreading writing Run Your Own Mail Server, because I have moved on to dreading the first time I spellcheck it. Fortunately, I’m still looking forward to dreading the kill-passive-voice pass through the manuscript.
If enough Gmail or Microsoft users flag your legitimate messages as “spam,” their algorithms decide that your domain sends low quality messages that should always go straight into the spam bucket. Some people who signed up for mailing lists and later want to unsubscribe do so by routing the messages to the spam folder. Bloggers cold-mailing possible sources often suffer from this.
I find myself wanting to do the same. I need the business notices Stripe and PayPal send me, but they use our business relationship to legally stuff advertisements for their loans into my inbox. Before approaching PayPal for a business loan, I would go to the alley by the lead paint factory’s toxic waste heap and apply at Larry Leg-Breaker’s Betting Parlor and Emergency Financial Services. As much as I loathe those announcements, if I start teaching my spam filter that messages from PayPal and Stripe are spam, it will probably misfile critical emails.
Soon, spellcheck. Soon.