Running my own mail server at obtainium.org.
I’m using Mac OSX as the server for Obtainium, and it works great for websites, PHP, MySQL, all that cool stuff.
Then there’s email. Oi.
Every setting in the email server and client software appears designed to prevent me from sending or receiving email, on the grounds that I may not be who I say I am, that I might be a spam bandit just pretending to be me. This is all thanks to spammers who use other people’s email servers to send massive quantities of junk mail. So even if my email client logs on to the server with an encrypted password — I yam who I yam, to paraphrase Popeye — sometimes the settings won’t allow it to pass my mail.
Then there are the net cops who’ve taken it upon themselves to determine which servers are “open relays” and add you to lists that cause other people to not accept your email.
Sometimes the mail gets rejected. Sometimes it just vanishes into a black hole of electrons.
Worst of all: I’m the email administrator. So I can’t complain to me if I have problems, because I really don’t give a damn about petty user problems.
Part of the problem is I just have too many email addresses. The classic justfred@netcom.com, which I’ve had forever and doesn’t even exist anymore. justfred@sideshowfreak.com, which vanished when sideshowfreak was stolen by a domain squatter. justfred@obtainium.org, which I’m trying to make my main address. Plus fheald@cybertelcorp.com, justfred@mac.com, and fheald@cox.net, neither of which I use but which occasionally send important service notices so I have to check them anyway.
One of the funny things about Burning Man is seeing how many emails I’ve gotten when I get back. That’s one of the first things I do after showering: check email. Maybe this time I’ll just delete them all without reading. Or let the server bounce them as spam, which is most likely what it’s doing anyway.