Well, it’s been a while since my last rant at Microsoft, but this time just takes the cake. Here’s what’s happening now: both my mail exchangers have been blacklisted. It might be worth noting that the very same IPs are all in the green on the DNSBLs. Also, these MXs have a throughput of roughly 200 emails / month. YES, I did check EVERY email in and out of my MXs, and none of them were spam (20 of them were personal emails sent to ONE hotmail.com addy). So I’m no spammer. Nevertheless, I got blacklisted. I asked to be delisted, but I got blacklisted again 2 days afterwards. Here’s what the guys at support have to say about this:

Email filtering is based on many factors, but primarily it’s due to mail content and recipient interaction with that mail. Because of the proprietary nature of SmartScreen® and because SmartScreen® Filter technology is always adapting and learning more about what is and isn’t unwanted mail, it is not possible for us to offer specific advice about improving your mail content. However, in general SmartScreen® Filter evaluates specific words or characteristics from each e-mail message and weights them, based on their likelihood to indicate that a message is unwanted or legitimate mail. Unfortunately, after reviewing the information you provided and in compliance with our mail policies, we are unable to offer immediate mitigation for your deliverability issue. However, we have some specific recommendations for you to consider that can help you to improve deliverability over time.

In other words, “We don’t know what the hell we’re doing, so go fuck yourself”. I currently have SPF and DKIM in place. I took some time to check their “guidelines”, and these guys happen to have written a “white paper” on e-mail deliverability; I think someone tricked them into thinking they were some kind of authority on e-mail deliverability. Here’s a funny excerpt from it:

If you believe your e-mail has been blocked in error by Microsoft, please review our best practices and technical guidelines to ensure compliance.

Again, in other words “If we’re mistaken, go fuck yourself too.”

I only have one piece of advice for all Hotmail users out there: switch to another provider! I mean it. If you haven’t, see my previous post on how Microsoft got hold of one of my aliases to sell it to spammers. If that doesn’t frighten you, I don’t know what will.