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Thread ID: 63841 2005-11-24 18:01:00 get the little buggas Eric Richards (6226) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
407106 2005-11-24 20:54:00 ninja, are you saying that email to the likes of "missedspam@clear.net.nz" has little impact because
1. It's ignored
2. Very few people bother
3. You don't know what happens to it.4. All of the above.

We've got our own missedspam address here as well.

There's a core group of people that e-mail it. Of that group, probably 50-60% don't send the message as an attachment (despite repeated clear instructions w/ screenshots) so it's of no use for training. 10-15% send messages that aren't actually spam (i.e. FWD's from friends, newsletters they've legitimately signed up to). ~5% send lists of e-mail addresses asking that "they be blocked" which are again of no use. On top of that, most of the messages also include all the little antivirus trinkets tagged on the bottom, the old "This incoming message scanned by AVG" type biffo, and you don't really want to include those in the training.

An effective Bayesian train requires approx ~3000 SPAM messages, and ~1000 false positives to have any real impact. Getting that many valid messages is rather difficult based on the average quality of a submission.

For the average home user, sending in the 1 or 2 missed spam messages you get each day wastes more time and effort than deleting them, for virtually no perceptible gain, aside from a small sense of self satisfaction perhaps.

:2cents:
ninja (1671)
407107 2005-11-24 21:17:00 There's a core group of people that e-mail it. Of that group, probably 50-60% don't send the message as an attachment (despite repeated clear instructions w/ screenshots) so it's of no use for training.

Thanks for expanding your original brief comment. Webmail operators like Yahoo probably have an easier time as "the report as spam" is as easy as deleting.
PaulD (232)
407108 2005-11-24 21:47:00 Anyone seen the latest?

Enlargement patches.......Muhahahahaha.
Metla (12)
407109 2005-11-24 22:22:00 Cool - patches!

Perfect for those who can't find it! :lol:
personthingy (1670)
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