> On 12 May 2021, at 09:59, Michael Rathbun via mailop <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 12 May 2021 09:27:40 +0100, Laura Atkins via mailop
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> The things we normally recommend to folks don’t always work as expected. 
>> Sometimes they do and we can fix things no problem. But sometimes they are 
>> just an inscrutable black box with variable responses.  
> 
> This is a characteristic that is also visible inside the system.  I found
> instances in the architecture where it might be impossible to determine what
> had happened to a given message.

You are not the first Microsoft (former) employee to tell me that. I think the 
first was DV back in SF a decade and a half ago when we were sitting in his 
living room during his whiskey tasting party. But it honestly could have been 
JD even before that. 

>> The other bit of speculation is that Microsoft as an entity just 
>> doesn’t really care what any outside company or person thinks. They do 
>> things 
>> The Microsoft Way. 
> 
> I endorse this analysis, noting that MSFT attempted to replace "commodity
> protocols" like TCP/IP with their own concoctions; MSFT had no idea what
> forces they were dealing with. 

Or… care? I mean this is the company that broke things internally in a way that 
made EVERYTHING fail SPF (even their own mail) because of an internal handoff. 
That went on for months. This is why I can’t get excited about Microsoft 
quarantining every DMARC failure. This is a much better situation than them 
respecting DMARC and then rejecting perfectly valid messages because they can’t 
do authentication analysis correctly. 

>> There isn’t the space inside the company for folks who know 
>> what the problems are to effectively advocate for change. I think there are 
>> lots of individuals who care and who see the issues, but the product 
>> developers / managers / owners just don’t care. They’d care if there were 
>> numbers to demonstrate the problem, but none of the numbers actually look 
>> like 
>> a problem. 
> 
> My utmost respect for those who are still there, working in whatever way they
> can.  The foe is not an evil supervillain.  It's simply the system as it has
> evolved to work, within the systems in which it is embedded.

You can fight people. You can fight ideas. You cannot fight embedded 
bureaucracy. 

laura

-- 
Having an Email Crisis?  We can help! 800 823-9674 

Laura Atkins
Word to the Wise
[email protected]
(650) 437-0741          

Email Delivery Blog: https://wordtothewise.com/blog     







_______________________________________________
mailop mailing list
[email protected]
https://list.mailop.org/listinfo/mailop

Reply via email to