¶ About email at May First
Email is one of the oldest and most widely used decentralized protocols on the internet and it continues to be a valued communications medium for May First members. We run our own dedicated email infrastructure available to all members.
¶ What we provide
- email accounts using @mail.mayfirst.org or your own domain
- mailing lists using @lists.mayfirst.org or your own domain
See our list of common email tasks for setting up and configuring email at May First.
¶ How is May First email different?
¶ Privacy by default
Unlike corporate "Big Tech" email providers we do not surveil your emails or attempt to extract data from them. We will not share your data with 3rd parties. When you delete a message from our servers it is immediately deleted from your mailbox.
- We keep backups of member data for a limited number of days strictly for the purpose of emergency disaster recovery.
- We keep email server logs for a limited time for diagnostics and monitoring purposes. These logs contain some email metadata.
¶ User accounts , mailboxes and email addresses
The novel approach May First takes towards organizing user accounts, mailboxes and email addresses as separate resources is different from most corporate email providers but it is a system we hope is ultimately more flexible and useful for members.
¶ What is a User account ?
Your user account and password are how you authenticate and login to May First services.
Use your user account and NOT your email address to login to May First email services
At some email platforms the full email address like example@geemail.com is also how you identify your account and login to their services.
At May First your full email address is not the same as your user account name which is the identity used to authenticate and login.
¶ Mailboxes
A mailbox is just a space where emails can be stored. A mailbox can be created for any valid user account and is used to receive incoming email. May First mailboxes can automatically receive mail at a default address comprised of the user account name followed by @mail.mayfirst.org. Example: username@mail.mayfirst.org
Users with active mailboxes are also allowed to send email through our servers.
¶ Multiple email addresses
You can create additional email addresses based on your own domain to deliver to any existing mailbox.
- Multiple email addresses can be configured to deliver to the same mailbox
- A single email address can also be configured to deliver copies to multiple mailboxes
| Email Address | Recipients | |
|---|---|---|
| Example 1 | realname@exemplary.org |
username@mail.mayfirst.org |
| Example 2 | role@exemplary.org |
username@mail.mayfirst.org |
| Example 3 | info@exemplary.org |
username@mail.mayfirst.org , username2@mail.mayfirst.org |
The flexibility of this system can be useful for May First members with special communications workflows or in collaborative work environments.
Security best practices: This system allows multiple people to receive mails send to the same address without using a shared login password. You can setup separate Mailboxes for each person and configure an email addresses to deliver to all of the user accounts who should see a copy of that mail.
See this guide for setting email addresses up in the control panel:
How to create a new email address
¶ Receiving and sending mail for your own domain
The system designed above will allow mail for addresses you've configured with your own domain to be delivered to a May First mailbox but in order for mail for your domain to arrive at May First servers in the first place you need to have the proper MX type DNS records setup for your domain.
Sending mail on behalf of your domain through May First servers also requires proper DNS records to and ensure deliverability. SPF records to let the receiving servers know that mail should for your domain should originate from our servers and DKIM records provide a way for receiving servers confirm that email hasn't been tampered with.
If you have assigned your domain to use the May First DNS nameservers it is easier for us to help set up email related DNS records for you in the May First control panel. The following how to guide provide practical instructions for setting up these records.
How to create or change an MX record for your domain
How to set up an SPF record for your domain
How to set up DKIM signing for your domain
How to set up a DMARC policy for your domain
In addition to using the proper DNS records you will also need to ensure you your email client/app is configures to access your May First mailbox and to send mail with the "from" address or "sender identity" you require. See these guides:
How to configure email on my device
How to set up Thunderbird to access your May First email account
How to change or add email sending identity
¶ Forwarding email
You can configure any email address to "forward" to an external address by simply setting the external address as the recipient.
Deliverability of forwarded mail depends on the email authentication policies implemented by both the sending address and receiving server
Forwarding mail should generally work if the sending message has been DKIM signed by the sending provider. The DKIM signature should allow the external mail provider that receives the forwarded mail to confirm that it really was sent by the original address even if it has been forwarded through May First's servers.
If there is no DKIM signature, then it may be rejected depending on the policies of the receiving email provider. If they are a permissive provider, they may not care. If they are a restrictive provider, they may block it.
If the original sending address domain has set a strict SPF record policy this may also cause the message to be rejected.