[arch-general] Suggestions for email for a paranoid Archer

[Menachem Moystoviz]

Recently, my paranoia levels have been ratcheted up by reading about
companies' treatment of their users, along with an increasing awareness
of my powerlessness with respect to most content providers.
I therefore curbed most online activity and have attempted to host those
services I used on my own server, in most cases living without when
I didn't succeed.

Two months ago, I attempted to install postfix and dovecot on my Arch box
in order to be able to host my own mail. Naively I thought that all I needed
was the right software and a dynamic DNS address. In other words,
I thought it would be as simple as setting up a web server.

Naturally, I found out that most anti-spam software is leery of mail from
dynamic DNS hosts who do not have rDNS and PTR records set up,
that they preferred DKIM mail, etc.

Seeing as these involve even more effort, I thought to ask the enlightened
members of the Arch community which solution they would suggest me to use,
because I trust you to have made intelligent decisions in this matter and
believe you understand this outlook. Also, I've seen many users with email
addresses issued by their own domain, which leads me to believe some of
you may have gone through this before.

The alternatives I'm aware of are:
1) Do what most people do, and just sign up for webmail, paranoia demanding
    me to download all email every day. Possibly alias the domain by routing
    everything through postfix first.
2) Host my own server, paranoia demanding multiple redundant backups.
3) No email - Knuth style

Pros:
1) Very reliable, better support, and non-crazy
2) Gain vast amounts of power over my email
3) Less distraction, no effort at all

Cons:
1) Less control, more black box. Is aliasing even possible? Too many providers -
    which to choose?
2) Hard to maintain, can crash at any moment, will drive me to early grave
3) Harder to keep in touch with people this way, harder to check what's going on

Which do you suggest? Do you have an alternative?

Thanks in advance,

Gesh