Yahoo Classing GAE Mail as Spam

[Greg]

I've noticed a couple of posts previously where mail from *.appspot.com addresses was classed as spam by Yahoo, but they may now be doing this with mail from custom domains too. Has this started happening to anyone else recently?

I'm ten days into an attempt to get my domain whitelisted, but Yahoo keep coming back asking for the IP address of my mail server despite careful explanations about Appengine. I replied to the last one by asking them what the IP address of Yahoo Mail's mail server was - hopefully that will get the concept across!

[Albert]

Yes, it's happening to my app too.

[Chris Copeland]

Do you have an SPF record setup for your domain?  I found that helped with deliverability to Yahoo when using my own domain's email addresses.

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:18 PM, Greg <g.fa...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've noticed a couple of posts previously where mail from *.appspot.com addresses was classed as spam by Yahoo, but they may now be doing this with mail from custom domains too. Has this started happening to anyone else recently?

I'm ten days into an attempt to get my domain whitelisted, but Yahoo keep coming back asking for the IP address of my mail server despite careful explanations about Appengine. I replied to the last one by asking them what the IP address of Yahoo Mail's mail server was - hopefully that will get the concept across!

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[Broc Seib]

Check out this other thread: http://code.google.com/appengine/forum/?place=topic%2Fgoogle-appengine%2FazhX_BKiNiE%2Fdiscussion

There is mention of using Amazon's SES with more success.

-broc

[Greg]

On Mar 25, 2:05 am, Chris Copeland <ch...@cope360.com> wrote:
> Do you have an SPF record setup for your domain?  I found that helped with
> deliverability to Yahoo when using my own domain's email addresses.

Yep, and DKIM - although I can't actually use it because GAE doesn't
let you add the headers at the moment.

[Greg]

On Mar 25, 3:31 pm, Broc Seib <broc.s...@gmail.com> wrote:
> There is mention of using Amazon's SES with more success.

I'd prefer to keep it all on one platform if possible - one less point
of failure.

[nickmilon]

@Greg +1
See also here: http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/browse_thread/thread/6b3857fc12a23621

[Greg]

UPDATE

Yahoo have said they can't help me because I can't give them an IP
address for my mail server. I've asked if this means mail from every
other distributed system is likewise blocked (Azure, SES, Hotmail,
Gmail) so it will be interesting to see the response to that. But it
looks like I need to resolve this some other way.

From the responses here, only one other Appengine user is seeing this
behaviour, so I'm guessing some other issue is at work. That issue
isn't that I send spam, by the way - all my messages are transactional
and requested by the user, although some less sophisticated users may
have marked them as spam.

Possible issues:

1. Volume. We send about 2000 emails a day at the moment. Could the
other blocked app, and any unblocked apps comment?

2. I set up a DKIM DNS record when Google released DKIM for Apps, only
to find it didn't work for Appengine. I've left the DNS record in
place and my Google Apps (Gmail) messages are NOT blocked. Possibly
having a DKIM DNS record but no DKIM headers get messages blocked -
again could the other blocked app, and any unblocked apps comment?

3. Country. I don't think NZ is a particularly bad spam haven, so this
is unlikely.

Any other suggestions would be welcome!

[Greg]

One last thing - if this affects you, PLEASE star this issue:


http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=3161&q=DKIM&colspec=ID%20Type%20Component%20Status%20Stars%20Summary%20Language%20Priority%20Owner%20Log

And Googlers, this is a BIG deal for me - Yahoo Mail is used by Xtra,
NZ's largest ISP. My application allows parents to book parent-teacher
interviews online, and is very popular - it now caters for over 40% of
NZ school students (and a growing number of Australian and US parents
too) - over 300,000 people have used it. But a good proportion
(30-40%) of those parents now don't get their booking confirmations
because of this issue.

I have staunched the flood of support calls by detecting Xtra email
addresses and warning them they won't get their messages (and asking
them to hassle Xtra/Yahoo on my behalf), but allowing DKIM headers
would make delivery far more reliable. I also reckon DKIM is the
answer to spam and salute Gooogle for implementing it for Google Apps
- but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can we have it for appengine too!

[JH]

I have an issue with yahoo too. Some of my mails to yahoo from GAE
are flagged spam, and some are not. I don't know why because they all
have the same content... it just seems like they sometimes randomly
decide they are spam. In the past my GAE emails always made it to
yahoo's in box. I have started using SES and it works well with
yahoo. I don't like using a different method either but I would
probably recommend you try SES if you need email delivery right now,
as it doesn't sound like Google is headed in that direction
currently. The only quirk with SES is their quotas, they start you at
1K emails/24 hours, and you have to earn a higher quota...

However, I would definitely prefer to be able to send via GAE, maybe
with dkim, and would even pay a higher rate per email for this. GAE
team please consider this...

On Mar 25, 9:04 pm, Greg <g.fawc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> One last thing - if this affects you, PLEASE star this issue:
>

> http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=3161&q=DKIM...

[Daniel Woelfel]

On Mar 25, 8:42 pm, Greg <g.fawc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From the responses here, only one other Appengine user is seeing this
> behaviour, so I'm guessing some other issue is at work. That issue

I have the same problem with app.reminderbear.com. I suspect
that many people have the same problem, but don't want to fill the
thread with "me too"s.

[Greg]

Success!

After two months of increasing pressure on Xtra (Yahoo's agent in NZ)
I finally added a notice to my application that detected Yahoo email
addresses, and told those users they would not receive their booking
confirmations and why. I also suggested they switch to an email
service that works, with instructions for Gmail. I informed Xtra of
this, and told them I'd go to the media with this if it wasn't
resolved by Monday.

And just like that, a wee email from Yahoo arrived saying that the
issue had been resolved. No details, and no apology of course.

I know we bitch about Google's customer service occasionally, but my
experience with Yahoo is FAR worse. Automated responses that take no
account of what you wrote to them, and blank refusals to help or even
explain why they won't.

So the lesson I've learned is to escalate FAST. I'm sure if I'd made
my threats earlier, the issue would have been fixed earlier. It's a
pain to have to do all the work, but better to get the problem fixed
sooner rather than later.

Finally, anyone else who was blocked now unblocked? The headers for my
test messages previously showed the IP address flagged, but now they
don't - maybe they've taken appengine's IP addresses out of the
blacklist.

Cheers!
Greg.

[Kaan Soral]

Yahoo once blocked my email address for having a 3500 score at Pool
Game.

fyhaoo