I'm still testing the website, and I have invited some friends to test. So far I need help to solve three issues:

1) all email (invitations) sent by website seem to be treated as SPAM by most servers, including gmail. AT& T completely rejects the messages:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

   s...@bellsouth.net 

    SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:

    host gateway-f2.isp.att.net [....115.....16]: 550-67.....175.195 blocked by ldap:ou=rblmx,dc=att,dc=net

    550 Error - Blocked for abuse. See http://att.net/blocks

As I do not have problems when sending messages from other accounts, I believe what is causing this is the code used to generate the messages...

2) ?UTF-8?B as message subject does not look professional and would certainly flag some spam filters. I have already tried the r solution, but I'm not sure that's what is causing this. Does anyone have a real fix for that issue? 

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <club@...t>

Received: from (...) by (...) with local (Exim 4.80)

            (envelope-from <club@...>)

            id 1TcdJR-000e3V-8s

            for s...@bellsouth.net; Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:36:01 -0600

To: s...@bellsouth.net

Subject: =?UTF-8?B?UHJvZmlsZSBzdGF0dXMgd2FzIGNoYW5nZWQgdG8gQWN0aXZl?=

Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 

3) Some members here have already pointed out that the way the invitation is made is very likely to 'invite' spammers and hackers to our website, as we have no control over expiration of invitation and it's not bound to the email it was sent to (just adding "?idFriend=1" to the end of the URL is enough to grant access. Is there a solution for this breach in the nearby future?

Thanks

This usually happens because the email was sent without a valid SPF record.  In that case, you need to contact your host to look into it (that's if this is on shared - you may be on your own for VPS and dedicated).  You'll then need to appeal the block, which can take a few days.  Also check Hotmail, because they're likely to have also blocked your emails.

Thanks Nathan,

I contacted my hosting service and it turns out that I already had the SPF set and enabled. 

Again, I'm not having this trouble with messages sent by different software I have within the same server, only with Dolphin... 

Any other possibilities, fixes, tips?....

It may also be the nature of Dolphin's email templates.  You could try personalizing them to sound less spammy compared to all the other thousands of Dolphin sites likely bombarding ATT with emails.  But either way, ATT needs to be contacted to lift the block.

done and done... 

The first one (change the template) didn't do much. Maybe something in the code?

The second one will take time to have any effect, I think.

Either way, I sent a test invitation to my own gmail address and Gmail also considered it spam... Didn't refuse it, but sent directly to spam box and said 'this looks like spam"...  

Could you send a test email to rootbaron@myopera.com?

 Ok, just did... :)

I also sent another invitation to my gmail and still got their "Why is this message in Spam? It's similar to messages that were detected by our spam filters." message and it was sent straight to spam box.

Can anyone help with the '?UTF-8?B ' thing? I've seen posts about this here, but no fix... Any ideas?

I would suggest to install and configure SMTP Mailer module.

Thanks Alex,

I actually had it installed, but completely forgot to configure it... If default installation didn't send any email until this mod was installed and configured, it would have saved me some blocking, I guess...

Anyhow, Gmail is still treating it as spam-like and sending message to spam box:

"

Delivered-To: (...)@gmail.com
Received: by 10.64.165.99 with SMTP id yx3csp467697ieb;
        Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:18:56 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.60.8.35 with SMTP id o3mr12892307oea.2.1354025936529;
        Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:18:56 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <club@(...)>
Received: from (...) ([67.....175....])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id z10si2393771obu.150.2012.11.27.06.18.56
        (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER);
        Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:18:56 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of club@(...) designates 67.....175.... as permitted sender) client-ip=67.....175....;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of club@(...) designates 67.....175.... as permitted sender) smtp.mail=club@(...); dkim=pass header.i=@(...)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=(...); s=default;
	h=Content-Type:MIME-Version:Message-ID:Subject:From:To:Date; bh=03AXU4TWICkIbfIPr0GlXBL3AkcO+eiFG29aaw5sw6U=;
	b=RzNSI64QNdCgm7D19HR/F3HHXuEXcNgKvGPVS7ABKnoHxssVjpdX6Zz84iGzhxMDu80suEVomKXTexMpDqnoz3jkHZIqmM3Pmdmy5neJViaYKRXi+KkdMkLA6NkCQccN;
Received: from [67.....175....] (port=36550 helo=(...)
	by (...) with esmtpa (Exim 4.80)
	(envelope-from <club@(...)>)
	id 1TdLzf-003bQh-1H
	for (...)@gmail.com; Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:18:35 -0600
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:18:34 -0200
To: (...)@gmail.com
From: DHB Club <club@(...)>
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?YXJlIHlvdSBnZXR0aW5nIHRoaXM=?=
Message-ID: <56659dbdcaae976a95d823c2280dfb2e@(...)>
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: PHPMailer 5.1 (phpmailer.sourceforge.net)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
	boundary="b1_56659dbdcaae976a95d823c2280dfb2e"
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - (...)
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - gmail.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - (...)
X-Get-Message-Sender-Via: (...): authenticated_id: club@(...)
X-Source: 
X-Source-Args: 
X-Source-Dir: 


--b1_56659dbdcaae976a95d823c2280dfb2e
Content-Type: text/plain; charset = "utf8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

hope this comes through...


--b1_56659dbdcaae976a95d823c2280dfb2e
Content-Type: text/html; charset = "utf8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

hope this comes through...


 --b1_56659dbdcaae976a95d823c2280dfb2e--

" 

Also, when I tried the link "This is great tutorial on how to whitelist your server in many popular webmail services, including yahoo"

All I got was this error message (couldn't open a ticket about it):

Oops…

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0x99 in position 2755: unexpected code byte

There was an internal error in Trac. It is recommended that you notify your local Trac administrator with the information needed to reproduce the issue.

To that end, you could  a ticket.

The action that triggered the error was:

GET: /wiki/TutorialTweakingSpamFilters

TracGuide — The Trac User and Administration Guide

Tutorial has been corrected:

http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/TutorialTweakingSpamFilters

Nice tutorial!

But it doesn't mention Gmail... Any suggestions on how NOT to get our emails interpreted as spam by them?

Never saw problems with spam with Google Mail.

It maybe really something wrong with settings or your domain or IP is really marked as spammer source.

If you can't figure this out, it is better to ask your hosting support for the help.

 Nope...

I have other sofware installed on the server which also send out automatic messages (alerts, notifications, etc). Very low volume, though. And none of them comes back or is sent to spam. So, the problem is NOT with the IP or domain.

Besides, I've already checked my IP with several spam listings and it's NOT listed anywhere!

The setting is alright, as the messages ARE being sent and the email configured shows on the header of the messages. 

The problem IS within Dolphin... Does anyone know how to solve this?

There is no known problem with SMTP mailer in Dolphin, it depend on SMPT mailer settings, email content and server settings if email goes to spam. 

Try to use some email client with the same settings as in SMPT mailer and send the same email to see if the problems persists. 

 Hi AlexT,

Thank you for helping!  But I find this a little confusing...  Could you give me some examples on what exactly do you want me to do? I mean, if I'm to use the same settings, are you suggesting I just change the email account (address)? Not sure what to do exactly here...

Also, you listed the factors that would make the emails sent by the software be considered spam:
it depend on:

SMPT mailer settings => My SMTP are set properly, I believe, just like I have set for other software I use, and I haven't had problems with any of them, so far... BTW, I was surprised the Dolphin was even able to send out any emails at all, using the email I had entered during installation (it was made by Softaculous), before I remembered do configure the SMTP properly!... I strongly suspect that whatever default configurations Dolphin was using is exactly what triggered the spam filters and made some emails servers list my email address and IP as spammer... I suggest you guys reprogram it so that any attempt to send out emails would fail until this feature has been properly configured after installation. This could avoid problems like mine, I guess...

email content => I was using the default contents, the ones that come with the default installation. I only changed some things AFTER the emails sent as a test (invitations, confirmation, etc)  got blocked. I removed the sitename tag and replaced by the actual sitename, to look less like automatic emailing, and also I removed the 'do not reply' message at the bottom.

server settings  => again, the settings are the same as used for other software I use for sending emails, as I have not changed that at all, neither requested for them to change anything... and , again, I didn't have problems until now.... 

Use email client (MS Outlook for example) and configure it the same way as you configured SMTP Mailer in Dolphin and sent some emails to see how it goes.

 Oh, ok! Got it! 

I sent a message from Outlook and it went straight to my inbox (no spam filtering) at the gmail address I used for the test.

Right after, I tried to send an invitation to the same email (Gmail) address, and it went straight to the spam box, with the 'traditional' message "Why is this message in Spam? It's similar to messages that were detected by our spam filters"

I sent again another one from Outlook, this time using the same subject line and the message content as the one sent through Dolphin, but once more, the one sent from my computer went to inbox (cleared!)...

I have attached the full code from both messages here. Maybe there is something inside the message (code) coming from Dolphin that might be 'triggering' the 'spam' flag? 

Thanks again!

Hmm... very strange. Also you removed domain from the message, but this info maybe critical to identify the problem.

I suggest to check the following:

- noreply@(...) is really exists on the server used for sending mail from (SMTP server)

- noreply@domain.com - where domain.com matches the domain mail is sent from

 Yes, "noreply@(...)" exists and I just removed the "domain.com" from the code part (txt file) for safety reasons. I also removed parts of the IP, for the same reason :)

Please provide access to your Dolphin Admin Panel via PM - I will try to check your SMPT Mailer settings.

I've checked your SMTP mailer setting and everything looks good.

I've also sent mail to gmail account - and it went to inbox, not spam folder.

 Hi Alex,

Man, you got to have done something!...  

I tested sending an invitation right after I saw this reply and indeed, it went to inbox. 

I changed the password (both on my server cpanel and at smtp module on Dolphin) and a new invitation test went straight to spam box.

I thought: "It might have been because they were too close in time", so I sent one from my own computer, using Outlook, same text, same formatting, same subject line -> inbox!

Waited a while, tried another invitation from Dolphin... -> spam box!

You must have changed something that made it work ok, but when I changed the password (it's apparent on smtp module, you guys could change that to "********"...) bam! the problem came back... 

What is the secret????  

I've changed nothing.

Just have a look at the settings - they all seem looks good. Then I sent test message. That's all.

 Thank you for your help Alex! 

But this is actually bad news... If you didn't change anything, AND the settings are ok, and YET the mail sent by the system keeps being interpreted as spam, then I'm afraid the software won't work for me... I'm afraid I'll have to give up on Dolphin entirely... 

Try to remember if you(or someone else) changed something in Dolphin or on the server in this period, maybe it somehow affected mail sending.

been through that one before. umm you are probably using linux.. hopefully they have decent help files like windows does.