[jacquesm]

It may be strange to you but running a mailserver was pretty normal back in the day and even now I see nothing wrong with it. In fact, I see a lot wrong in having just a few email service providers that get to dictate terms. There is arguably something wrong with how hard it is to properly set up and secure a mail server, but the concept of running your own mailserver is no different than running your own HTTP(S) server.

[blfr]

It is somewhat different because you need to convince other mail servers to cooperate with yours whereas the HTTPS server works directly with clients (browsers) and may function completely independently.

[gcr]

I run my own mail server. It's simple enough to set up SPF in your DNS records to avoid landing in Gmail's spam, at least. Not sure about other providers. I send so little mail that I'm basically background noise.

[seanp2k2]

It also matters if you host it at a reputable place (DO or AWS or Linode work) and if you want it easy, just wire up your mail server to a transactional email service or smtp.google.com :

https://zapier.com/learn/ultimate-guide-to-email-marketing-a...

It's possible to configure DKIM and SPF and your server correctly, and hopefully stay off blacklists, but if inbox deliverability really matters to you, a [no-cost] plan with a Mandrill or MailGun service should do well for you. It's what I use to have home servers and IoT things send me email, to gmail, and I never have deliverability issues.

[cloudjacker]

its not strange to me that is was done, just that you or anyone was attempting to do it, for their family no less, in the last 15 years.