[grc] Question about Google blocking e-mails to radio station deejay list

[Leigh Robartes]

Thanks for the reply, Dave.

The point is we do not want to use G Suite or Google Services or Google 
anything if we can help it (for ethical and privacy reasons).

Of course some of our deejays have gmail addresses and we can't do much 
about that.  The gmail addresses appear to be the ones which are blocked 
from receiving our e-mail list due to Google anti-spam overreach.

--Leigh


On 2/22/2021 12:46 PM, David Devereaux-Weber wrote:
> Hi Leigh,
>
> WORT uses G Suite for Nonprofits.  Our website is hosted by a local 
> company, but our email is hosted by Google. Our email addresses are 
> xxx at wortfm.org <mailto:xxx at wortfm.org>. G Suite at the basic level is 
> free. We also get Google Groups (email lists), Google Drive, a YouTube 
> channel, and other features. 
> https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/g-suite/ 
> <https://www.google.com/nonprofits/offerings/g-suite/>
>
> Regular Gmail looks at the content of your email and uses it to 
> improve the recommendations for Google Ads and in Google searches. The 
> Gmail in G Suite for nonprofits does not display ads.
>
> Whether or not you use G Suite for Nonprofits, Google has Google 
> Adwords for nonprofits. That is, you have several thousands of dollars 
> of Google Adwords for your station. So if you buy the words News and 
> Madison, Wisconsin, if people in Madison search for news, they might 
> get a Google add that shows http://wortfm.org/news 
> <http://wortfm.org/news>
>
> Feel free to talk to me directly if you have questions.
>
> Dave
>
> David Devereaux-Weber
> President, WORT Board of Directors
> president at wortfm.org <mailto:President at wortfm.org>
> (608)576-2599
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 12:15 PM Leigh Robartes via grc 
> <grc at maillist.peak.org <mailto:grc at maillist.peak.org>> wrote:
>
>     I have a question for those who are in charge of e-mail lists for
>     deejays at stations, or perhaps for the administrator of this list.
>     Our e-mail list administrator was noting some e-mails sent to our
>     modest
>     e-mail list (about 160 addresses, since paired down to 77
>     addresses) are
>     sometimes being blocked by Google, at least the ones sent to gmail
>     addresses.   Our e-mail list is an important organizing tool, and
>     a good
>     way to keep in touch w/ former deejays who might want to start
>     volunteering again now that Covid has changed their life around.
>
>
>     The administrator claims that if we move our e-mail list to Google
>     Services we would avoid the problem, but obviously we can't do
>     this for
>     ethical reasons, mainly because (as I am told) moving to Google
>     Services
>     would mean all of our @krfp.org <http://krfp.org> accounts would
>     be become disguised
>     @gmail.com <http://gmail.com> accounts.   Google has been
>     harvesting the actual text of
>     e-mail messages sent and received from gmail accounts for years, and
>     although they apparently no longer sell that info for advertising
>     purposes, the company still has cached everything written, which is a
>     violation of privacy.
>
>
>     We got a list of e-mail messages Google blocked from an ISP and a
>     message from a tech there who wrote:
>
>
>     <<<begin snip>>>
>
>
>     to accept email from other servers, the spf record contains “?all”,
>     meaning make up your own mind about accepting email from servers not
>     listed. Google deems all email sent from a server not listed as
>     spam and
>     rejects it. The line:
>
>     “This is the mail system at host _ofagrave02.hostedemail.com_
>     <http://ofagrave02.hostedemail.com/
>     <http://ofagrave02.hostedemail.com/>>” suggest the email is coming
>     from
>     email system not among those listed in your spf record. Best guess,
>     since Google doesn’t publish how they make up their minds about an
>     email.
>
>     The other possibility is pointed to by the
>     “_https://support.google.com/mail/?p=UnsolicitedRateLimitError_
>     <https://support.google.com/mail/?p=UnsolicitedRateLimitError_>
>     <https://support.google.com/mail/?p=UnsolicitedRateLimitError
>     <https://support.google.com/mail/?p=UnsolicitedRateLimitError>> to
>     421
>     4.7.28.” The numbers at the end refer to email being sent at a rate
>     higher than Google allows – for example, from a bulk email program or
>     service.
>
>     Google is very aggressive.
>
>
>     <<<end snip>>>
>
>
>     The above message implies Google is not letting _non-spam_ e-mails
>     through, justifying the practice by saying they are suspected spam.
>
>
>     _My Question:_
>
>
>     How can you operate an e-mail list (some of them, such as GRC, which
>     have hundreds of addresses) without getting messages blocked and
>     without
>     going through Google Services?  Do we need to change to a different
>     service?   What do you use? Have you been able to avoid problems
>     like this?
>
>
>     -- 
>     Leigh Robartes
>     Station Manager
>     KRFP / Radio Free Moscow, Inc.
>     90.3 FM
>     Moscow, Idaho
>
>     208 892 9300
>
>     _______________________________________________
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>     <http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc>
>
-- 
Leigh Robartes
Station Manager
KRFP / Radio Free Moscow, Inc.
90.3 FM
Moscow, Idaho

208 892 9300