C&CZ was the first to implement e-mail (@sci.kun.nl) at the KUN (Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen), some 35 years ago. Some configurations we have used since then have not kept up with the changing landscape of e-mail implementations worldwide. In Dutch there’s a saying for this: “De wet van de remmende voorsprong”.
One of the major things that have changed over time is dealing with SPAM. For instance, there are now protocols that major e-mail players require and therefore became the de facto standard for email communication.
While we already include the necessary protocol information in the emails we send, we do not currently apply these protocols to incoming email. This limitation exists because our current tooling does not support them.
For this reason, we plan to replace the existing tooling. The new setup will improve our ability to block spam and reliably accept legitimate email. However, this change may also require discontinuing support for certain features that were introduced many years ago and are no longer compatible with modern standards.
In the early days of email, forwarding messages from one provider to another was a common practice. Today, however, the protocols used to verify the legitimacy of email messages make forwarding between providers difficult and, in many cases, unreliable.
We currently maintain approximately 16,000 forwarding rules (aliases). Our goal is to reduce this number as much as possible and to ensure that any remaining forwarding rules function correctly in accordance with current, globally accepted email standards.
TL;DL: In the coming months, we are updating the science email system to align with current, real-world email standards and practices.