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Newsletter Edition

When Spam Bots Broke My Newsletter (And What We're Building Anyway)

The newsletter that got eaten by spam filters, now with 100% less spam

August 15, 2025

Fellow Information Beings,

If you're reading this, congratulations—we've temporarily defeated the spam filters.

A Quick PSA

If you're seeing this in your spam folder, please:

  1. Mark it as "Not Spam"
  2. Add [email protected] to your contacts
  3. Maybe sacrifice a small offering to the spam overlords (j/k..)

This helps rebuild the "sender reputation" that got destroyed when bots signed up hundreds of fake emails and those people marked my newsletter as spam. Yes, really. That's how email works in 2025.

The Newsletter That Didn't Reach You

On August 13th, I sent out what readers called "the most important thing you've written" and "fuel for existential crisis." It featured deep dives into:

  • Model Context Protocol (MCP): How AI agents will transform messaging by 2025
  • The Empire of One: Why we're all compressing ourselves into algorithmic costumes
  • Information Theory vs China: Does decentralization always win, or is China breaking my theory?

Only 32 out of hundreds of readers saw it. The rest? Gmail decided you didn't need to know about the future of digital consciousness.

📧 Read the lost August 13th newsletter here →

The Full Spam Saga

Between July 7 and August 13, sophisticated bots hit my newsletter signup with hundreds of real email addresses. When I sent my legitimate newsletter, those people (who never signed up) marked it as spam. Result: Gmail now thinks I'm a spammer.

The technical irony is exquisite:

  • Perfect SPF, DKIM, DMARC scores ✅
  • Google Postmaster showing full compliance ✅
  • Actual delivery to humans: sub-3% ❌

I've now implemented honeypots, reCAPTCHA, and rate limiting. The bots are still finding ways through. It's an arms race where the prize is the ability to send an email—a protocol from 1971.

🔧 Read the full technical breakdown and philosophical rant →

What I'm Building Anyway

While fighting spam filters, I've been working on:

  1. MCP Lunar Series: An 8-part exploration of Model Context Protocol, timed to moon phases (because if we're going to build consciousness infrastructure, we might as well align it with cosmic rhythms)

  2. Newsletter Archive: Every email edition will now live on the site at /newsletter, because depending on email alone is clearly a fool's game

  3. Anti-spam fortress: Three layers of protection that still aren't enough, proving that defense is always more expensive than offense

The Philosophical Bit

We're building cathedrals of consciousness on infrastructure made of rusty pipes full of lead. Email from 1971. HTTP from 1991. Social platforms that compress human expression into engagement metrics.

And yet—we build anyway. Not despite the broken foundations, but because of them. Every workaround teaches us what the next layer needs. Every spam bot that defeats my defenses shows me where the protocol is broken.

The substrate always wins, but it wins by incorporating our attempts to escape it.

Moving Forward

I'm committing (against my will) to monthly newsletters minimum, even if they're short. Turns out "once in a blue moon" sending is the worst possible frequency for email reputation. The algorithms want consistency. Fine. I'll give them consistency with a side of existential dread. I thought the algorithm fight was a social media one, but it turned out it is actually everywhere. I thought the algo fight was a platform fight, but it turns out it is actually a substrate fight.

If this email reached you, we've won a small battle in an infinite war. If it didn't, well, you're not reading this anyway.

Keep computing at the edge of comprehension,

Zak

P.S. - If you forward this to one person, you double my effective delivery rate. That's not marketing, that's just math.

P.P.S. - Seriously though, mark this as "not spam" if you're in Gmail. I'm not above begging.

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