[thelist] Is my email Spam?

[Chris W. Parker]

Frank <mailto:lists at frankmarion.com>
    on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 2:11 PM said:

> Sure. I'm writing a web-mail style app right now that got caught in
> Yahoo's filters. I'm guessing that they are using Bayesian filters,
> and the causes of the catching were probably that I included HTML and
> inline images. That alone weighs the factor against the most
> legitimate email. 
> 
> The point, however is that it's a useful tool for figuring out things
> that one might not have considered.

How would being caught by a bayes filter help you ascertain something
you didn't consider?

In your previous paragraph you say "I'm guessing that they are using
Bayesian filters, and the causes of the catching were probably that I
included HTML and inline images." Well that's just my point, you can't
be sure of WHY the bayes filter marked it. With bayes, the only thing
you can know about the email was that it got flagged or it didn't get
flagged.

I think it's partly related to the old "how many people use netscape
navigator 4+? i'm trying to decide whether or not to support it"
question. Well the answer to that is "check your logs and find out."

Your users are different than my users, and your spam is different than
my spam.


But then again maybe I'm just misunderstanding the concept here.



Chris.