Word to the Wise
wordtothewise.com · Company blog · on HN since 2014
Word to the Wise is an email consultancy's blog on deliverability, DKIM, DMARC, SMTP rejection codes, and spam.
What HN saysHN links it for explanations of email authentication and spam campaigns, such as list-bombing and subscription abuse.
17HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
16stories submitted
48story points
10 months agolast shared
2014people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1DKIM and injected headers2 people · 19 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 2Is Email Dead? (2023)2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 3Cloudflare and Spamhaus (2012)1 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 4Email History through RFCs1 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 5STARTTLS and misplaced outrage1 people · 3 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 6DMARC: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly1 people · 3 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 7Don't send customer-generated content1 people · 2 points · first shared 2026 · discussion on HN
- 8What 4xx/5xx rejection codes mean at various stages of an SMTP transaction1 people · 2 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 9Minimal DMARC1 people · 2 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 10How you migth end up on a Spamhaus list, and what to do about it1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 11DNSBLs, wildcards and domain expiration1 people · 1 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 12Deliveries and Opens and Clicks1 people · 1 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 13Mailbox tools are a security risk1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 14ARC: Authenticated Received Chain1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 15Equifax compromise and their insecure response1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
iamacyborg · 2021-03-11
Mailchimp turned off double opt-in as the default list behaviour, presumably as a result of this listbombing taking place.
It eliminates the immediate flood from the listbomb attack but does mean the email address now has to opt-out from every list they've been susbcribed to.
https://wordtothewise.com/2017/10/mailchimp-changes-signup-process/
Arnt · 2016-09-21
No, it doesn't.
Google tore down the federation on purpose, with a configuration change. Rumour has it that it was a spam response.
There's an interesting similar spam campaign going on right now in email, BTW. https://wordtothewise.com/2016/09/ongoing-subscription-form-abuse/
Savageman · 2016-03-01
Though you definitely still have space for improvements. I have a Mailgun account and:
1. I didn't configure my MX so you don't track delayed (asynchronous) bounces. It should be your responsibility as an email provider to use an appropriate Return-Path so spam complaints/bounces reach back to the client in this situation.
2. I opened ticket #212817 a while ago (September) about how a MITM could capture emails and replay them by injecting duplicate Subject/From/To headers (article here: https://wordtothewise.com/2014/05/dkim-injected-headers/) but this still isn't fixed today :(
That said, we're very happy with the service :), one of the killer features is how easy it is to manage wildcard sub-domains (compared to the pain it is with Mandrill).