Spam in subject lines (Re: 70% [* SPAM *] Re: multiprocessing.Queue blocks when sending large object)

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 7:57 PM,  <boB at mail.python.org> wrote:
> Why do people add character  like    [* SPAM *]  to their  subject
> lines ??   Is it supposed to do something  ??   I figured since
> programmers hang out here, maybe one of you know this.

People don't. It's something added by a spam filter that thought that
the email was likely to be junk (in this case, a 70% probability
thereof). If you're curious as to exactly _why_ the filter thought
that, check the email headers - it's all there, in exhaustive detail.

The purpose of the tag is to let recipients make some simple filter
rules (eg "if it has SPAM in the subject, put it in a separate
folder") and/or to be able to eyeball spam easily.

Chris Angelico