[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #60420: Default wordpress at site.com sender address can be problematic

[WordPress Trac]

#60420: Default wordpress at site.com sender address can be problematic
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 Reporter:  thinlinecz       |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Mail             |     Version:  1.5.1.2
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  close            |     Focuses:
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Comment (by SirLouen):

 Some key elements I want to highlight:

 1. The `From:` part is kind of tricky regarding the hosting part. If you
 have a fully configured MTA in your server/webhost/whatever you are using,
 as long as you have the local part (the `wordpress`) mapped, it won't
 bring any troubles. The problem is that most hostings limit the mappings
 to X units, and aliases don't count.

 I have not used regular web hosting for ages, but the last time I dealt
 with one I remember that just creating the mailbox for `wordpress` with my
 associated domain DNS pointing fully to the hosting was more than enough
 to make the WP mailing system work flawlessly. So from a very basic user
 standpoint, just explaining in the Health Check that they need to create
 said mailbox will be more than enough (or edit this with the corresponding
 hook). For the “advanced administrator” that needs to configure his MTA
 accordingly, here is where the Administration Handbook entry comes into
 play.

 2. I still need to review the book entry more deeply. Despite it was
 merged some months ago the link was not even added, so it is not published
 yet. I think that the major problem that administrators are having is with
 the `Sender` address itself (not the `wordpress at host` address in
 particular). In fact, in some of my servers I use a
 `wordpress at mail.host.org` format because I host the core domain for
 corporate emails in a different mail server. So the reality is that if the
 administrators can't deal with the filter hook… they have a serious
 problem.

 > I've also reconsidered whether a canonical plugin would be useful in
 this situation and I've decided that I don't think it would be appropriate
 here. Even if the From email is changed through the use of a filter, that
 alone would not be enough. "Something still needs to be done, outside of
 WordPress, in order to make it work," as stated above. This would just
 result in a confusing scenario for the user.

 3. Still, could we add a place to modify the `From`. A canonical plugin is
 not a terrible idea. If there was a section specific to mail-related
 topics within a plugin, I don't see the trouble in adding this. In fact,
 most extensions have this by default (and the Reply-To also, which is a
 little forgotten and could be as valuable as the `From:`).

 4. About the #25239 you mention there. As you have seen, related to the
 point number 2, the main issue that people have historically had is with
 the `Sender` property, no the email address itself (this is why I closed
 this ticket, as it's unlikely to get too far apart from the little tweaks
 we are commenting here). That report sorted out a problem with certain web
 server apps, and now it's a little more reliable. But this was mostly
 affecting people managing their servers.

 5. Finally, I have to admit that the decision to use `wordpress@` was
 terrible. As @siliconforks pointed out, back in the day, the #1 option was
 `hostmaster`, and this was part of the RFC recommendations. This kind of
 discussion could have ended easier if that was set up, as it almost a
 default, and many webhosts give these inboxes for free by default (I
 wonder if Bluehost does)

 I would like to hear about what the ppl from BH are doing nowadays. Given
 they are providing WP preinstalled as one of the main services, I wonder
 how they are deploying the mail part for their users (probably
 autogenerating a `wordpress` local inbox by default straight away`). With
 the conclusions, I think we need to tweak a little more the copy on
 #62129.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60420#comment:24>
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