[Gllug] Testing spam filter

[John G Walker]

On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:14:36 +0000 "Martin A. Brooks"
<martin at hinterlands.org> wrote:

> John G Walker wrote:
> > Hmmm. I don't really think I want do such things to the 430 spam
> > emails I received last week, or the similar number I'll receive next
> > week or the week after. They don't deserve it, and this would
> > constitute the major part of my email transmissions if I did reply
> > to them.
> >   
> 
> You're confused, or I'm confused by what you're saying.
> 
> There are two basic approaches to dealing with spam:
> 
> 1) Reject it at SMTP time
> 2) Accept it and file it accordingly.
> 
> My approach is option 1.  Mail thought to be spam doesn't get in the 
> building, and a 5xx error is generated at SMTP time.  If the sender
> is genuine, they get a system generated email telling them that their
> email wasn't delivered.  If the sender isn't genuine, errr, there's
> no real problem. 

Ah, okay. I was writing on the assumption that we were discussing
filtering after receipt. You are quite right about the approach of what
to do at SMTP time.
> 
> Option 2 puts the onus on the recipient to deal with spam messages 
> which, to me, is entirely the opposite of having a spam filter.
> 

I filter out the spam when I receive it. Let's not get into an argument
about terminology.

> If you really are getting 430ish spam per week hitting your mailbox, 
> then maybe you'd like to give my filter service a go, you get 30 days 
> for free.
> 
> 
> Mart.
> 

Thanks for the offer, but its no effort to deal with it. I have
Bogofilter nicely tuned to file it all away without me seeing a single
one, no false positives and a maximum of about half a dozen a week
getting through.

Actually 430 is down from what it was the last time I counted, so maybe
things are improving,

-- 
 All the best,
 John
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