Welcome to the first installment of Reply-All, a semi-regular/whenever-I-feel-like-it look back at the week in Deliverability:

• Breathless reports of Spamhaus blocking (ZOMG!!1!) Gmail outbounds turn out to be almost but not quite exactly untrue. There are, however, 15 hosts from Google Docs listed for hosting pill spam graphics and redirectors.
• Message Labs turns in it’s monthly spam tally: 92% of all e-mail in August was spam, the vast majority of which was generated by networks of ‘botted machines with persistent broadband connections.
• Ken Magill — whom I always thought of as a beer kinda guy — outs himself to be more of a Martini man. After months of radio silence, he casually throws down a monster industry scoop: Goodmail has hired an investment banker to shop the certification giant to private equity groups.
• Also, check out Ken’s latest in a career-long series of rants against the DMA. Ken accuses leadership of breaking from hallowed tradition by hiring a leader who (gasp!) seems very well qualified for the job. (Best of luck with the new gig, Ken! I hope I was one of the first to subscribe.)
• Speaking of booze, if you’re sick of Social Media or Deliverability Gurus|Ninjas|Samurai|Dragon Slayers, try a Social Media Sommelier instead. Now, that’s a job title I can aspire to.
• A global, secure opt-out list is proposed – again. The world seems to have forgotten that Rodney Joffe (of Conficker Working Group fame) already built it back in 1998, and offered it to the DMA for $1 (who turned up their nose at it and burned a couple million trying – and failing – to build their own spam-friendly version).
• Andrew Bonar out-geeks us all with the launch of Deliverability Daily. Also, Email Radio continues to be full of win. Also also, Steve Atkins, partner of Laura Atkins in life and business, finally capitulates and opens a Facebook account. <!–include file=”hell_freezing_over.txt” –>

Hope to see you all here next week!