Infrastructure/Email

As it is common for contributors to move between different email providers, email aliases (forwarding addresses) are provided to allow for a consistent email address to be given by a contributor. These are currently offered under two domains: kdemail.net and kde.org.

Requesting an alias

Any contributor to the KDE project is able to request a kdemail.net address by submitting a ticket, including the initial destination address of the alias. kdemail.net addresses must be in the form [email protected], and do not include a mailbox (forwarding, only).

If a contributor wishes to request a kde.org address, then they need either the support of two existing kde.org address holders, or they need to be a member of the KDE e.V. (as an eV-member you are already supported by two persons in the past). Contributors who meet these requirements should file a ticket, mentioning the criteria they qualify under, the desired alias, and the initial destination address of the alias.

Updating your alias

All changes to both kdemail.net and kde.org aliases should be made by filing a ticket. It is necessary (for authentication purposes) that the ticket is filed using an Identity account associated with the email alias in question.

Changes can include adding further destination addresses to your alias or removing existing destination addresses.

Filtering

All email destined for kde.org and kdemail.net address is subject to both spam filtering and virus scanning. All mail which is determined to be definite spam or infected by malware will be rejected and not accepted for delivery.

For those contributors with either kde.org or kdemail.net aliases who are concerned about losing mail due to this can request that a copy of the filter logs for each day is sent to them by filing a ticket.

Sending email via mail.kde.org

If you wish to use your @kdemail.net or @kde.org address for sending - not just receiving - email, you should do so through mail.kde.org, the primary KDE email server. As an additional benefit, email sent via mail.kde.org from a kde.org address will be signed using DKIM, allowing the recipient to verify the email is legitimate.

Before doing so, you will need to file a ticket asking for your account to be provisioned with the rights to send email through mail.kde.org. This is not enabled for all accounts by default in order to mitigate the abuse by compromised accounts.

In 2018 the mail server moved host from postbox.kde.org to letterbox.kde.org, however it is recommended that people use the canonical hostname mail.kde.org in their settings for SMTP as that will point to the correct host even if it changes again

The following details should work in most email clients. You should use your Identity username and password to authenticate.

Host Name: mail.kde.org
Port: 465
Connection Security: SASL/TLS
Authentication: PLAIN

or

Host Name: mail.kde.org
Port: 587
Connection Security: STARTTLS
Authentication: PLAIN

Workarounds

A lot of email clients can't finish setup of kdemail.net address, because of sending-only nature of them. One possible workaround is to setup a sending alias on Gmail. The process is straight-forward, just make sure to replace its letterbox.kde.org server suggestion with more stable mail.kde.org. After this, you may choose your kdemail alias as sender on web version of Gmail. You may also add it as sending alias to the corresponding Gmail address in your favorite email client.