Ask HN: What is the ideal email domain setup?

I don't know if I'm really at an ideal state, but I have at least the cumulative results of meeting immediate needs over time:

I have a domain.tld with MX to Purelymail and a duplicate MX record also for a sub.domain.tld. New account registrations get example.com@sub.domain.tld (and a unique password/phrase using EFF Large Wordlist and generated in KeepassXC (so not real diceware, I think, despite the little icon of a die)). Random other things also get similar ad-hoc addresses as needed. All of the addresses already theoretically exist; all mail for *@[sub.]domain.tld routes to my super trendy and cutting-edge three-initial-username catchall mailbox.

I don't know your situation, but a whole domain just for friends and family to send mail to each other seems somewhat overprovisioned. But maybe you have a large family and a lot of friends, and maybe you all still email each other a lot.

> Is it worth running a Gmail . . .

I wish it weren't useful or necessary, but it seems to be somewhere between those things. I'd like to be able to ditch them entirely, but there's still regularly some utility to the "main", the "main real-name", and the half-dozen or more "alt/'anon'/junk/slush" Gmail accounts I made years ago (can you even still get away with that anymore?)

I've been working on a project with the intention of changing the email landscape a little (or a lot) that I'd love to share with you. I've been working on a hosted solution available but if you prefer to tinker and get set up something for yourself there's an open version of it for a single domain.

It's a new open protocol that I've been working on that puts identity front and center of email communication.

I don't want to be presumptuous and spam you with the links but happy to send them over if you'd like to see more.

What I've done for years: "generate" email addresses on the fly like zz-<portal>@mydomain.com and have a catchall rule for zz* in my main inbox. So if I get any mail or spam I can see where it originates from (and by doing this it I was able to point a portal to the fact that obviously they leaked mail addresses). By doing this I can block a single mail address.

This does break though when you are required to SEND with this email address.

For me, any attempt I’ve made so far to “fix” email with more addresses has done nothing but create more complexity and headaches. I regret every single attempt I’ve made. My time would have been better spent better tending to the inbox I already had.