Did this ever work? Or did someone just start using the email and expect it to work?

It's been working since 2016. I've just checked the queue and latest received email is dated 08/01/2019.

Looks like this changed in https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/operations/dns/+/533219

+ @Vgutierrez

Hi All! Just wanted to drop a line to share that this is the address shared as the main communication email of the group in social media and other channels; so we'd like it work. Would it be possible to help on this? When we could expect it to get it work? Thank you.

Could anybody please explain why such an easy task does takes so long to get resolved? What can be done to expedite?

In T241132#5763084, @Krd wrote:

Could anybody please explain why such an easy task does takes so long to get resolved? What can be done to expedite?

Probably in part the time of year, holidays etc. I don’t know if SRE are likely to pick this up before the new year, to avoid unnecessary deploys in the break

It does seem like it taking 3+ months to notice it was broken is slightly odd... So why the urgency to get it fixed? ;)

Re-adding an MX record is not rocket science, this should be possible also at this time of the year, and not noticing missing e-mails if a different thing than actively ignoring a broken setup. IMHO.

In T241132#5763086, @Krd wrote:

Re-adding an MX record is not rocket science, this should be possible also at this time of the year, and not noticing missing e-mails if a different thing than actively ignoring a broken setup. IMHO.

It might not be, But as mentioned, Many of the Ops team such as SRE whose responsibility this fall under have low coverage due to the holiday season, Which is why there is a deployment freeze on at the moment.

In T241132#5763084, @Krd wrote:

Could anybody please explain why such an easy task does takes so long to get resolved? What can be done to expedite?

Yes: See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bug_management/Development_prioritization . "Rocket science" comments don't help. Patches do.

A formal deployment freeze sounds reasonable. Can you please advise for which day the change can be scheduled, so we can decide if an expensive interim solution is required, i.e. temporarily moving the whole stuff to a different e-mail address?

In T241132#5753952, @Reedy wrote:

Did this ever work? Or did someone just start using the email and expect it to work?

It was purchased for OTRS by the looks T76277: Redirect wikimedia.community to wikimedia.org

In T241132#5763090, @Krd wrote:

A formal deployment freeze sounds reasonable.

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.35/Roadmap

Change 561587 had a related patch set uploaded (by Vgutierrez; owner: Vgutierrez):
[operations/dns@master] Provide MX and SPF records for wikimedia.community

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/561587

Change 561587 merged by Vgutierrez:
[operations/dns@master] Provide MX and SPF records for wikimedia.community

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/561587