Mailman 3 July 2004 - SpamBayes

RE: [Spambayes] Important: new feature!
by Tony Meyer Nov. 2, 2004

Nov. 2, 2004

> I understand what you're saying, and I've re-trained > spambayes on equal numbers of HAM and SPAM, 300 each. Yet, it > still has a tendency to classify some HAM as spam. A > significant percentage is like maybe 25% of my regular > announcement mail gets spamflagged... Something is definitely not working here - a 25% false positive rate is extraordinarily high. You shouldn't even get as high as 2.5%. Perhaps you could send the spam clues report for one of these messages (before any training on it) to the list? We could take a look at it and see if there's an obvious reason that it's failing to be classified correctly. > Perhaps I have a better > solution: I have a lot of mailtraffic from the local > university network and a lot of correspondence, announcements > etc arrive from addresses with the "phys.uu.nl" suffix. > Surely it must be possible to exclude messages whose > returnaddress contain that string (or other certified > addresses) from further processing by spambayes? This is called "whitelisting", and SpamBayes does not do it. For a lengthy explanation, please see FAQ 6.6: <http://spambayes.org/faq.html#why-don-t-you-add-whitelisting-blacklisting-t o-spambayes> You ought to be able to implement some sort of whitelisting with Outlook's rule system, however. =Tony Meyer --- Please always include the list (spambayes(a)python.org) in your replies (reply-all), and please don't send me personal mail about SpamBayes. This way, you get everyone's help, and avoid a lack of replies when I'm busy.

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this might seem fickle...
by Nathan Sudds Sept. 25, 2004

Sept. 25, 2004

But I can't seem to get the icons back for my spambayes toolbar... I installed a toolbar for putting paypal payment buttons into my emails... it's another outlook addon.. ever since then the icons for Spambayes show up as the paypal icons... it's a minor thing but it's pretty annoying for a visual person like myself... any advice? I'm using the Windows version of the Outlook Addon of spambayes and I am running windows XP Pro with Outlook 2000. SpamBayes version .81 to start with but now I'm running the new .9 version.. and I'm glad it's much faster on my machine than .81 was... but I wouldn't mind having those icons back... Thanks, Nathan Sudds | CreativeDirector nsudds(a)arkitekture.com ::: ARKITEKTURE:::::::::::::: focusing our sites on building yours -------------------------------------------------------------------- [launch] // www.arkitekture.com

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[slightly OT] spammer 'random' words that are addressee-related?
by Denis Haskin Aug. 18, 2004

Aug. 18, 2004

(This isn't *quite* a spambayes question but I think there are knowledgable people here <grin> who can point me in the right direction to get more info. Feel free to declare this too off-topic and send me someplace else.) Like many of you (I'm sure), I'm sysadmin/network ops/hardware tech/customer support/etc for my family's home network. My wife showed me some spam she got this morning that included the usual 'random' words in the subject, but she was wondering if the words maybe weren't so random. The words seemed related to 2 email lists she's on. Now maybe this is just complete coincidence, but is it possible in fact that her email address was harvested somewhere and words were picked up from the harvesting context to be used when constructing spam to her? This seems like a lot of effort for not a lot of return... Also, we're *pretty* sure that both of these email lists are pretty well protected (e.g. they're not archived in any public place as far was we know). Also, they're obscure and small enough that I find it hard to believe it would be worth spammers' while to 'infiltrate' these lists (as they do with yahoo groups). It also occurred to me that perhaps someone else on these lists has a virus which is harvesting this from a local PC and sending it off to a spammer? Anyone have any thoughts? Is there any web site that catalogs known spamming tactics? Thanks, dwh

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feature request
by Carey Holzman Aug. 5, 2004

Aug. 5, 2004

The only complaint I have about SpamBayes is that it does not offer spam to automatically be sent to the deleted items, instead forcing it to the Spam folder. Why this is so annoying is that all spam must be deleted from the Spam folder, where it then goes to the deleted items folder, where it once again needs to be deleted. And if SpamBayes makes an error and a spam message arrives in your Inbox, you delete it a third time. The OPTION to send spam directly to the deleted items folder (referring to SpamBayes in use in Outlook, of course) would be greatly appreciated.

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mozilla
by Dorothy Wyatt Aug. 2, 2004

Aug. 2, 2004

I have spambayes at work where I have no choice but to use Outlook, and it work greats, and some little icons in the toolbar that I can "remove, etc" messages from spambayes. Can I set it up this way in mozilla ?? and if so how?? Thanks for any feedback, Dorothy

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RE: [Spambayes] Illogicality in the Web UI?
by Katz, Amir Aug. 2, 2004

Aug. 2, 2004

If you use Mozilla or FireFox, you can simply open the clues link with Click+Control-T, which will open it in another tab in the same browser. The first tab still shows the classified list. Problem solved. Amir -----Original Message----- From: Skip Montanaro [mailto:skip@pobox.com] Sent: Saturday, July 31, 2004 21:30 To: robert(a)imagine.co.uk Cc: SpamBayes(a)python.org Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Illogicality in the Web UI? Robert> Go to the Review messages page in the web UI and work your way Robert> through a couple of hundred emails, checking the current Robert> classications. As you get to the end of the list of emails Robert> there's one item which seems to be wrong: so you decide to check Robert> the clues. All seems well, so you return to the Review page - Robert> and find that the web interface has thrown away all your Robert> carefully classified selections and reverted to where you first Robert> started classifying. This is, unfortunately, a feature of your web browser. Some browsers simply insist on refetching the page when you hit the back button. I'm not sure if there's anything the sb_server.py-generated HTML can do to keep that from happening (maybe there's some magic HTTP header that will stop it). I suppose we could add a "target" attribute to the clues links to force the clues pages to open in a new window. I'd personally find that a bit annoying though. (My browser, Safari, doesn't suffer from reload-itis.) Is there some way you can force the clues page to open in a new window (button 2 click, hold down a modifier key, whatever)? What about using a different browser? If so, that would be a reasonable workaround until a more generally acceptable solution can be found. Skip _______________________________________________ Spambayes(a)python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html

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Illogicality in the Web UI?
by Robert Neuschul Aug. 2, 2004

Aug. 2, 2004

Hi folks Using the web interface to review messages there's a slightly irritating illogicality. Go to the Review messages page in the web UI and work your way through a couple of hundred emails, checking the current classications. As you get to the end of the list of emails there's one item which seems to be wrong: so you decide to check the clues. All seems well, so you return to the Review page - and find that the web interface has thrown away all your carefully classified selections and reverted to where you first started classifying. Whilst it's not a show stopping event, it's extremely irritating, and slows down the process. ISTM that either the link to the "Clue" page should open it in a new window, so that closing it won't affect the main Review page, or that when clicking the Clue page link, the current status of the Review page should be cached and restored when one has finished examining clues. Robert.

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Help
by Jim Burch July 31, 2004

July 31, 2004

Thanks so much for this great software! You are the saving force! My file "junk email" has disappeared from the left column of my Outlook. I know some good emails are still going in there, as the program is still training, and I guess always will be to some degree. But I need to see the "junk email" file to retrieve the good stuff and slide it over to the inbox. Can you tell me where it went and how to get it back in the left-hand options box in Outlook? (I read the on-line manual, but frankly am not too good at this and could not figure out the answer to this question.) I am not sure which version I have, only that it is about two months old, so is probably a newer version. Thanks so much! Jim Burch Jim(a)ContemporaryCatholic.org

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Problem with POP3 Proxy: Save and Restore Default buttons are too close
by kerhop＠oz.net July 31, 2004

July 31, 2004

I am using SpamBayes POP3 Proxy Version 1.0rc2 (June 2004) (binary), with version 2.3.3 (#51, Feb 13 2004, 14:39:56) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] of Python; my operating system is Windows 5.1.2600.2 (Service Pack 1). I have trained 844 ham and 3015 spam. The problem I am having is occasionally I'll make a configuration change, but accidently move the mouse slightly causing a click on the restore-defaults button instead thus loosing my custom settings. I'd like to see a future version with restore-defaults located far away from the save/advanced/experimental buttons or at least add a "are you sure?" prompt.

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Call for help
by R.C. Resink July 31, 2004

July 31, 2004

Dear spam fighters, Sorry to bother you this way, but pushing the send-button in the help section of the configure htm, did not tell whether a mail was sent to you or not. I am using SpamBayes POP3 Proxy Version 1.0rc2 (June 2004) (binary), with version 2.3.3 (#51, Feb 13 2004, 14:39:56) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] of Python; my operating system is Windows 5.1.2600.2 (Service Pack 1). I have trained 0 ham and 0 spam. The problem I am having is that there are no messages to view or for training, allthough I received quite a few emails, many of which spam. I followed all steps in your readme html after installing 3 days ago. I had a difficult time with the 'Using the Service' chapter, having to dig DOS out of ancient memory and to understand the instructions trying to translate menus to my language, 'Administrative tools' is translated to 'System Tools' in Dutch. An area that almost nobody uses I would think. Also FYI I had trouble understanding what user account you meant: e-mail account? That did not work but my log-on accountname worked. I believe the next step Configuration 1. SetUp SpamBayes worked. But I could not work out point 2. SetUp your mail client. I cannot find anything about 'mail client' or 'local host' options. Could that be the reasons that my e-mails are not read by your program? I am above average knowledgeable in computers and software (I also program in VB and Paradox) and I could imagine that quite a few people would find it difficult to follow these steps. For example the word 'server' does not mean much to me. I think that that is another computer. I am adding all these details to this call for help. Not at all to complain, just in case the feedback may be useful in your quest to kill spam. Also FYI, Trident Software Support drew my attention to your efforts and software trough an auto-responder. If you can give me a hint on how to get the programme to work, I would be very grateful. Thank you, R.C. Resink

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