[Spambayes] Whitelisting for spam reports

Tue Oct 18 01:10:28 CEST 2005

Tony,

The "whitelist"/"blacklist" capability is very weak in most
of the Spam packages I have used.

I, and I suspect many others out there, have accumulated 
quite a lengthy list of addresses that fall into one of the
two lists.  It would be VERY nice if a text file could be
imported into the application to add "whitelist"/"blacklist"
entries.  There should also be a capability to backup and
reload these if possible.

Just my $.25.

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Whitelisting for spam reports (Richie Hindle)
   2. Re: Whitelisting for spam reports (Tony Meyer)
   3. Free SpamBayes eBook (Bill Hely)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 14:20:04 +0100
From: Richie Hindle <richie at entrian.com>
Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Whitelisting for spam reports
To: spambayes at python.org
Message-ID: <37k4l1lpn64k6otfni0rps09f9f5thdf5v at 4ax.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

[Manuel]
> I prefer to always train everything to keep my filter up2date.

[Tony]
> Research has shown, in every case, that this will give you inferior 
> results to training on errors & unsures only.

Whether you train on everything, or only on mistakes and unsures, doesn't
make a lot of difference to Manuel's argument.  Either way, he needs to scan
down the list and mentally filter out the spamcop replies - with mistakes
and unsures he wouldn't need to click the mouse for many of them, but the
fact that they're there makes life harder.

I don't think Manuel's request actually counts as whitelisting at all, and I
think it's quite reasonable.  What he wants (Manuel, correct me if I'm
wrong) is to filter out certain senders from the training list.  All
messages from spamcop would be automatically set to Discard and omitted from
the training list.  His email client's whitelisting rules would ensure that
they ended up in the right place.  Any messages that claimed to be from
spamcop but weren't would be problem - they would get through the filters,
and they would be untrainable, but as I understand it Manuel doesn't have a
problem with that (as the FAQ points out, the SpamBayes developers see much
more forged senders than ordinary users do).

When you look at it like this, I think it's quite a reasonable feature
request.  I'd appreciate this feature myself (although not enough to spend
the time to implement it, I'm afraid).  I get a lot of bounce messages from
the victims of spammers who are using my address as a forged From address.
I wouldn't be comfortable training on them, because they are pretty much
indistinguishable from real bounce messages - I have to check myself that
the bounced address isn't one that I've sent mail to.  I could use this
feature to declutter my training lists.

> OK, my fault, i think i overrated the abilities of the developers.

...but Tony is dead right - this sort of thing doesn't help.

--
Richie Hindle
richie at entrian.com

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 10:30:51 +1300
From: Tony Meyer <tameyer at ihug.co.nz>
Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Whitelisting for spam reports
To: Richie Hindle <richie at entrian.com>
Cc: spambayes at python.org
Message-ID: <8B7394E7-6968-454E-A5A3-803FF94E58E1 at ihug.co.nz>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

[Manuel]

>> I prefer to always train everything to keep my filter up2date.

[Richie]

> I don't think Manuel's request actually counts as whitelisting at all,

I agree (I said that somewhere else in the thread, I think).

> and I think it's quite reasonable.  What he wants (Manuel, correct  
> me if I'm
> wrong) is to filter out certain senders from the training list.  All
> messages from spamcop would be automatically set to Discard and  
> omitted
> from the training list.

This is much the same as the existing ability to filter out 'bulk'  
mail from the training list.

> When you look at it like this, I think it's quite a reasonable feature
> request.

I don't have time to implement this at the moment either.  The thing  
to do, if Manuel (or anyone else interested in this) isn't able to  
put together a patch himself, would be to open a feature request at  
<http://sf.net/projects/spambayes>.  Ideally, don't mention  
"whitelisting" (someone might mistakenly close it); call it something  
like "Exclusion list for training list".  Someone, at some time, will  
probably get to it.

I suppose the UI for it would just be a text box where you can enter  
comma separated addresses.

If this gets added, is only the "From" header worth considering?  Or  
should there be corresponding options for other headers (e.g. "To",  
"Subject").

=Tony.Meyer

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:03:08 +1000
From: "Bill Hely" <bill.hely at helyholdings.com>
Subject: [Spambayes] Free SpamBayes eBook
To: <spambayes at python.org>
Message-ID:

<!~!UENERkVCMDkAAQACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAAAAAAAAqbhExL/f0RGYfyBMT09QIMKAAAAQ
AAAAbPm1ClZVe0OHzfkgrhgrqwEAAAAA at helyholdings.com>

Hi all.

I have just completed my new eBook titled "Spam Warfare:
Microsoft Outlook Edition". It's a comprehensive treatment of
spam, built around the SpamBayes Outlook plug-in, and written in
end-user language. It's not aimed at you experts but I do need
your help.

Before going to market I would like to get some informed
feedback, so for a few days I'm offering a free copy to any
member of the SpamBayes forum willing give me that feedback.

All I ask is that you write me a brief critique (ideas,
suggestions, corrections) or - even better - a testimonial.

The book is a 2MB password-protected PDF. Password and download
directions delivered via autoresponder. It's double-opt-in (that
is, requires eMail confirmation) because I want to discourage
people from signing up their friends. It's you SpamBayes experts
I want feedback from for now.

For your free copy just send a blank eMail to:
mailto:SpamBayesMember at Aweber.com?subject=Warfare-review-copy

I'll never share your details with anyone for any reason, and the
list will be deleted when this review process is over.

Thanks for your interest and assistance.
 - Bill Hely
 - Author: "Spam Warfare: Microsoft Outlook Edition"
 - http://Spam-Warfare.com

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