I'm having sudden second thoughts about how I should be dealing with mails that get qualified incorrectly and dropped into the wrong mailbox. I've operated for years on the understanding that if, e.g., a mail gets dropped in spam (or unsure) that SHOULD have been sent to my inbox, the fix is to manually move it from the spam (or unsure) box into my inbox. I do this in mutt by selecting the misqualified mail and saving it to the desired box (which removes it from where it had been put). but I've been reading stuff on the spambayes web site and don't find any reference to doing it that way. In fact most of the discussion seems to be how to do it in outlook or other non-Linux system. So, I'm hoping someone can enlighten me on this. thanks in advance! Fred -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ------------------------------- Romans 5:8 (niv) ------------------------------
I'm having sudden second thoughts about how I should be dealing with mails that get qualified incorrectly and dropped into the wrong mailbox.
I've operated for years on the understanding that if, e.g., a mail gets dropped in spam (or unsure) that SHOULD have been sent to my inbox, the fix is to manually move it from the spam (or unsure) box into my inbox. I do this in mutt by selecting the misqualified mail and saving it to the desired box (which removes it from where it had been put).
but I've been reading stuff on the spambayes web site and don't find any reference to doing it that way. In fact most of the discussion seems to be how to do it in outlook or other non-Linux system.
I no longer use SpamBayes for my personal mail, but still (from time-to-time) update the training database on mail.python.org. For that, I use the train-to-exhaustion tool (contrib/tte.py in the SpamBayes repo). You said nothing about how asymmetric your ham and spam databases are, or how big either one is, so I'm not sure what properties your current database has. In general, I do try to keep them reasonably small and current. I just got a new computer and can't currently login to mail.python.org, but when I do, I have a further shell script wrapper around tte.py I can send your way, and refresh my brain about the steps necessary to update things. Skip
On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 04:47:04PM -0600, Skip Montanaro wrote:
I'm having sudden second thoughts about how I should be dealing with mails that get qualified incorrectly and dropped into the wrong mailbox.
I've operated for years on the understanding that if, e.g., a mail gets dropped in spam (or unsure) that SHOULD have been sent to my inbox, the fix is to manually move it from the spam (or unsure) box into my inbox. I do this in mutt by selecting the misqualified mail and saving it to the desired box (which removes it from where it had been put).
but I've been reading stuff on the spambayes web site and don't find any reference to doing it that way. In fact most of the discussion seems to be how to do it in outlook or other non-Linux system.
I no longer use SpamBayes for my personal mail, but still (from time-to-time) update the training database on mail.python.org. For that, I use the train-to-exhaustion tool (contrib/tte.py in the SpamBayes repo). You said nothing about how asymmetric your ham and spam databases are, or how big either one is, so I'm not sure what properties your current database has. In general, I do try to keep them reasonably small and current.
I just got a new computer and can't currently login to mail.python.org, but when I do, I have a further shell script wrapper around tte.py I can send your way, and refresh my brain about the steps necessary to update things.
Skip
Skip, thanks for the note! I think I've got a handle on it... my hammiedb was several years old and had undoubtedly accumulated a lot of cruft. I was getting numerous non-spam mails diagnosed as "unsure", no matter how many of them I moved into the HAM folder that gets trained every night by a cron job. so shortly after posting my query, I bit the bullet and moved the hammiedb aside, moved the trained.ham and trained.spam folders aside and excerpted the most recent 300 (or so) messages from ham and spam (yes, I reviewed them to ensure there weren't any ringers in there) and trained on those. now it seems to be behaving much better. I also installed (in my .muttrc) some mutt macros linked to from the spambayes page that train on messages as I move them to the ham or spam folders, should any have been mis-diagnosed. (trained.ham and trained.spam are folders where nothing is ever added except when I move a mis-diagnosed mail, manually. these are the folders that are used for training input during the cron job every night.) Thanks again for the reply! and thanks for SpamBayes, it's STILL a great tool! Fred -- ---- Fred Smith -- fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us ----------------------------- "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ---------------------------- Hebrews 4:12 (niv) ------------------------------
Here are the instructions from the mail.python.org SpamBayes setup, as well as the train.sh script which drives the process. You will almost certainly need to modify the script somewhat and take the README with a grain of salt, but hopefully not too much (and hopefully only a very small grain). Skip
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Fred Smith -
Skip Montanaro