DKIM2, Asynchronous Bounces and VERP

• steve
• Apr 27, 2026

• Technical

This is just expanding on some of the points Laura made last week.

DKIM2: What it means for the future of email

• laura
• Apr 23, 2026

• Technical , Industry

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is it?
• OK, but really, what is it?
• OK. Why?
• Current Status
• ESPs Take Note
• Next Steps
• Conclusion

Introduction

After years of stagnation in email authentication protocol development we have a new player entering town. The protocol is DKIM2 and it’s in active development over at the IETF. If you want to see the sausage being made, you can visit the IETF datatracker to see the details and sign up for the mailing list.

The spam folder and opens

• laura
• Apr 9, 2026

• Industry

There’s a post getting a lot of traction in my LinkedIn feed from someone spreading misinformation about open rates. A bunch of deliverability colleagues have weighed in and pointed out some of the mistakes, but there’s one very big mis-statement I haven’t seen anyone correct. [1]

SPF ?all

• steve
• Mar 20, 2026

• Technical

I was updating my SPF library and discovered that the example code snippets didn’t work any more, as at some point in 2024 AOL switched their SPF record from “(lots of stuff]) ~all” to “(lots of stuff) ?all”. Nothing particularly surprising, folks change their setups occasionally. I updated the example code to expect a neutral response rather than softfail and all the tests pass.

Upcoming webinar on Gmail and inbox signals

• laura
• Mar 13, 2026

• Best Practices

I’m thrilled to announce I’m sitting down at the beginning of April to talk about inboxing in 2026.

Recent Writings and Events

• laura
• Feb 19, 2026

• Industry

I don’t know about you, but we’re more than 6 weeks into 2026 and I can’t figure out where all the time has gone. It’s been a much busier January than I’m used to. I’ve been working on a lot, including a project I’ve been trying to get off the ground for a while. I’m really excited it’s finally taking shape and I hope to be able to share it with folks in the next month or so.

Not Business as Usual

• laura
• Jan 26, 2026

I don’t know what to say about what’s happening in the US, but I know I can’t stay silent, either. I don’t have anything inspiring to say here. I just cannot keep silent and pretend it’s all business as usual. I’m saddened, I’m horrified, I’m sick about what the government of the US is doing to citizens and non-citizens alike.

Don't send customer-generated content

• steve
• Jan 19, 2026

• Technical

I just got this email:

SPF is valid. It passes DKIM for zoom.us.

IPv4 and IPv6

• steve
• Dec 16, 2025

• Technical

There are two Internets

There are two separate Internets, the Old Internet and the New Internet. They might travel over the same ethernet cables or wifi, but they’re quite separate and rarely directly interact with each other.

Let's Talk Reengagement

• laura
• Dec 5, 2025

• Best Practices , Delivery Improvement

I appear to have written a lot about about re-engagement on the Email Geeks slack channel the last few days. The problem with slack is it’s not great at archiving or keeping information in an accessible, searchable manner. So, I’ve pulled together the answers, rearranged it, made it slightly more coherent and a little less stream of consciousness, so I can reference this when the topic comes up again.