> This change is akin to Google no longer accepting incoming e-mail for @gmail.com addresses from non-Google domains. That would be unthinkable.
The sad thing is that I no longer consider this unthinkable. There's an extremely disconcerting email monoculture emerging around gmail. Practically everyone I exchange email with uses gmail. Companies and universities are switching to gmail. It can be difficult to get your mail accepted by gmail if you run your own servers: I help administer the servers at one organization whose mail (personal correspondence, not mailing list posts or the like) often gets sent straight to gmail's spam folder and we're doing everything right in terms of DNS/SPF/DKIM/etc (in fact, the same config works great elsewhere). Try to look for help on gmail's website and all you can find for this problem are the "Bulk Sender Guidelines" - as if the only people who aren't using gmail already are bulk senders.
Now consider Google's actions as of late. I could totally see them one day saying, "we're not going to accept email from you unless we've emailed you first or you've contacted us to ask for permission." There would be outrage, but I also wonder how many people would actually stop using gmail if they did this.
Edit: I'm not saying this will happen, I'm just saying it's not unthinkable, which is sad.
> I could totally see them one day saying, "we're not going to accept email from you unless we've emailed you first or you've contacted us to ask for permission." There would be outrage, but I also wonder how many people would actually stop using gmail if they did this.
> It can be difficult to get your mail accepted by gmail if you run your own servers: I help administer the servers at one organization whose mail [...] often gets sent straight to gmail's spam folder...
As a counterpoint, I've been running my own mail server for 15 years (from various hosted and dedicated servers) and I haven't ever had a problem delivering to gmail...
Yeah, I run other mail servers as well, and none of them have problems delivering to gmail. It's just this one place which has a problem, and there is no way to make Google care about it. I fear it will only get worse as the gmail monoculture spreads.
The sad thing is that I no longer consider this unthinkable. There's an extremely disconcerting email monoculture emerging around gmail. Practically everyone I exchange email with uses gmail. Companies and universities are switching to gmail. It can be difficult to get your mail accepted by gmail if you run your own servers: I help administer the servers at one organization whose mail (personal correspondence, not mailing list posts or the like) often gets sent straight to gmail's spam folder and we're doing everything right in terms of DNS/SPF/DKIM/etc (in fact, the same config works great elsewhere). Try to look for help on gmail's website and all you can find for this problem are the "Bulk Sender Guidelines" - as if the only people who aren't using gmail already are bulk senders.
Now consider Google's actions as of late. I could totally see them one day saying, "we're not going to accept email from you unless we've emailed you first or you've contacted us to ask for permission." There would be outrage, but I also wonder how many people would actually stop using gmail if they did this.
Edit: I'm not saying this will happen, I'm just saying it's not unthinkable, which is sad.