[Spambayes] Why do I get more spam when using SpamBayes?!?

[Tim Peters]

[David Ayres]
> I installed it at home, never got more than a few spam messages, but I
> wanted to give it a try and keep any future spam messages from
> starting.

spambayes doesn't do anything to reduce the amount of spam you get -- its
goal is to move the spam you get from your main inbox to a different folder.
It doesn't do anything to increase the amount of spam you get, either,
although it's possible you'll get less to the extent that having spam moved
to a different folder inhibits you from "previewing" HTML spam with tracking
URLs.

> As soon as I installed spambayes I started getting tons of spam.  Why
> is that?

I also got a lot more spam (and more so every month) after installing
spambayes.  Then, after about a year, it dropped dramatically.  Then it
picked up again.  Then it fell again.  I don't expect that any of these had
to do with spambayes, and know for a fact that the dramatic drop had to do
with one ISP installing better safeguards on their end (I had been getting >
100 spam/day from that one account, and it's dropped to a trickle now).

> That's ridiculous?  Here I installed a tool to help me stop spam, and
> it causes more!

I expect you're mistaking correlation for causality.  IOW, coincidence.

> Aaaargh!  Maybe next I'll install some virus scanning
> software full of viruses.  That would be great.

That's possible, and even likely if you install "virus scanning" software
you download from a link in spam <wink>.

> Now I'm getting over 50 spam messages daily in my home inbox.  That's
> awesome.

It's also probably minor compared to what you'll eventually get.

> I'm a developer myself, so maybe you there's a reason this happens
> that you can't control.

You're free to download and examine every line of our source code -- nothing
is hidden or secret.  That's a protection you can't get from commercial
products (both that you can examine it yourself, and that you can bet other
people have).

> If so, please explain, and I'll try to understand.  But as of right
> now I hate this product.

Well, you're not really required to hate either, but if you have to hate
something, of the two it makes more sense to hate the spam <wink>.