Blacklist vs. Spam
- charles2765
- Mystified Moa
Post
Blacklist vs. Spam
I'm a newbie. Sorry to ask such a basic question, but I searched the "Help" and the forum and couldn't find the answer: "What is the difference between clicking "blacklist" on an unwanted e-mail and clicking "Spam"? (I think clicking the "thumbs down" is the same as clicking "SPAM"). I believe both actions prevent future posts from that sender from hitting my inbox, and I think clicking blacklist will cause the sender's e-mail to be listed on my blacklist list of addresses. Also, I assume clicking "SPAM" will not cause the e-mail address to be stored anywhere that I'm able to see it -- since I couldn't find a "SPAM" list anywhere. But, still, these are just guesses. I'm not really sure what the exact difference is between clicking "blacklist" vs. clicking "SPAM". Can someone please spell it out for me? Thanks. -CES
- rusticdog
- Firetrust Monkey
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
Hi there
When you blacklist, that adds the sending email address to your blacklist. You can tell MailWasher what to do with Blacklisted addresses under Settings >> My Blacklist. For example you can set to automatically delete, or just mark them for delete etc..
The Action column is for the Learning filters, so it's not looking at the senders email address, instead the content of the email.
If you have the Thumbs Up/Down showing, that means MailWasher isn't sure if the email is good or bad, clicking Thumbs Down will teach MailWasher it's bad, and future emails with similar content should be automatically determined to be bad. Likewie the opposite for clicking Thumbs Up.
It's a touch counter-intuitive, but if the Action column reads SPAM that means MailWasher thinks the email is spam, if you click SPAM you're changing it to GOOD, and future emails with that kind of content will be considered not to be spam. The simple way to look at it, green is good, red is bad...
When you blacklist, that adds the sending email address to your blacklist. You can tell MailWasher what to do with Blacklisted addresses under Settings >> My Blacklist. For example you can set to automatically delete, or just mark them for delete etc..
The Action column is for the Learning filters, so it's not looking at the senders email address, instead the content of the email.
If you have the Thumbs Up/Down showing, that means MailWasher isn't sure if the email is good or bad, clicking Thumbs Down will teach MailWasher it's bad, and future emails with similar content should be automatically determined to be bad. Likewie the opposite for clicking Thumbs Up.
It's a touch counter-intuitive, but if the Action column reads SPAM that means MailWasher thinks the email is spam, if you click SPAM you're changing it to GOOD, and future emails with that kind of content will be considered not to be spam. The simple way to look at it, green is good, red is bad...
- charles2765
- Mystified Moa
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
Super helpful reply. Thanks.
So, I think my strategy at the beginning is going to be using the "blacklist" method only -- so that I control everything by sender e-mail addresses. And I have auto-delete on everything on the blacklist. This should cut down significantly on the e-mails I need to review in MailWasher.
Then, after a few days, once the list of unwanted sender e-mail addresses is fairly complete, if I still get the odd e-mail (because some existing spammers will constantly be changing their sending e-mail address), then I can begin to use the "Spam" method to further weed out the remaining posts whose e-mail address I cannot anticipate.
Again, a very helpful explanation. Saved me a lot of time. Thnx.
Charles
So, I think my strategy at the beginning is going to be using the "blacklist" method only -- so that I control everything by sender e-mail addresses. And I have auto-delete on everything on the blacklist. This should cut down significantly on the e-mails I need to review in MailWasher.
Then, after a few days, once the list of unwanted sender e-mail addresses is fairly complete, if I still get the odd e-mail (because some existing spammers will constantly be changing their sending e-mail address), then I can begin to use the "Spam" method to further weed out the remaining posts whose e-mail address I cannot anticipate.
Again, a very helpful explanation. Saved me a lot of time. Thnx.
Charles
- charles2765
- Mystified Moa
Post
Still Don't Have the Hang of It...
Hi -
I'm a new MailWasher user, and I'm afraid I still don't have the hang of it.
I want to not have to delete SPAM e-mails out of my inbox. I thought MailWasher would delete SPAM e-mails off the ISP server for me ahead of time, but it's not working the way I want. Everything (except blacklisted e-mails) still seems to get downloaded both to MailWasher and to my e-mail browser inbox.
I have MailWasher set to download e-mails automatically every minute. I have my mail browser to download e-mails automatically every *two* minutes, so I figured MailWasher should (nearly) always have a chance to purge unwanted e-mail off the server before my program gets to it.
I've already "blacklisted" a bunch of addresses and checked the Setting.SpamTools.Blacklist.Options.AutoDeleteBlacklistedEmails box, so I'm assuming e-mails from senders already identified as "blacklisted" are getting deleted by MailWasher from the e-mail server most of the time even before my e-mail browser downloads. So, that's good.
However, the e-mails marked as "SPAM", but which I have not yet specifically "blacklisted", are not getting deleted automatically from the e-mail server and as a result I get as many, or nearly as many, SPAM e-mails as before I started using MailWasher.
I would prefer not to have to manually request downloads to my e-mail browser (it's currently set to automatically download every two minutes.) Is there some way to have MailWasher automatically *delete* e-mails it has identified as SPAM instead of downloading them, showing to me for approval, allowing me to blacklist them, and thereby letting them all slip through into my regular e-mail browser inbox?? I think I trust MailWasher not to flag as "SPAM" anything I would want to see.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Charles S.
Northbrook, IL
I'm a new MailWasher user, and I'm afraid I still don't have the hang of it.
I want to not have to delete SPAM e-mails out of my inbox. I thought MailWasher would delete SPAM e-mails off the ISP server for me ahead of time, but it's not working the way I want. Everything (except blacklisted e-mails) still seems to get downloaded both to MailWasher and to my e-mail browser inbox.
I have MailWasher set to download e-mails automatically every minute. I have my mail browser to download e-mails automatically every *two* minutes, so I figured MailWasher should (nearly) always have a chance to purge unwanted e-mail off the server before my program gets to it.
I've already "blacklisted" a bunch of addresses and checked the Setting.SpamTools.Blacklist.Options.AutoDeleteBlacklistedEmails box, so I'm assuming e-mails from senders already identified as "blacklisted" are getting deleted by MailWasher from the e-mail server most of the time even before my e-mail browser downloads. So, that's good.
However, the e-mails marked as "SPAM", but which I have not yet specifically "blacklisted", are not getting deleted automatically from the e-mail server and as a result I get as many, or nearly as many, SPAM e-mails as before I started using MailWasher.
I would prefer not to have to manually request downloads to my e-mail browser (it's currently set to automatically download every two minutes.) Is there some way to have MailWasher automatically *delete* e-mails it has identified as SPAM instead of downloading them, showing to me for approval, allowing me to blacklist them, and thereby letting them all slip through into my regular e-mail browser inbox?? I think I trust MailWasher not to flag as "SPAM" anything I would want to see.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
Charles S.
Northbrook, IL
- rusticdog
- Firetrust Monkey
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
Sure, if you're comfortable with MailWashers accuracy, then setting the emails flagged as SPAM to auto-delete is done in the Spam Tools >> Learning >> select the Recognising Spam tab >> set the option "Perform the action" to Automatic.
- charles2765
- Mystified Moa
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
Rusticdog -
Thanks so much for the speedy reply!
On my version of MailWasherFree (7.9.0), I can go to the Settings Tab at the top, from there I see a "Learning Settings" choice on the left side, but when I click that, I only get a single tab for "Learning Settings". I see that "Enable Learning" is checked, and "Use Lower Case" is checked, and the six fields all have values in them, but I don't see anything about "Perform the Action" and I don't see a "Recognizing SPAM" tab at all.
Have I missed something??
Charles
P.S. I've attached a picture if that helps.
Thanks so much for the speedy reply!
On my version of MailWasherFree (7.9.0), I can go to the Settings Tab at the top, from there I see a "Learning Settings" choice on the left side, but when I click that, I only get a single tab for "Learning Settings". I see that "Enable Learning" is checked, and "Use Lower Case" is checked, and the six fields all have values in them, but I don't see anything about "Perform the Action" and I don't see a "Recognizing SPAM" tab at all.
Have I missed something??
Charles
P.S. I've attached a picture if that helps.
- Attachments
-
- Picture.docx
- (220.74 KiB) Downloaded 243 times
- rusticdog
- Firetrust Monkey
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
Oh I see, I thought you were on MailWasher 6. I've moved this thread into the MailWasher 7 forum
So instead then it's Settings >> Spam Tools >> Spam Ratings >> you can see the auto-delete option here.
Note, what is a touch different about MW 7, is that it combines the various tools to give an email a final score, then can auto-delete based of that score. As you mentioned you're happy with the accuracy, so I would start by setting to around -100 for auto-delete.
The learning (from Thumbs Up/Down) scores messages from -150 which is very spammy, to +150 which is considered very good.
This is relevant as you may still see emails flagged as SPAM, but not auto-deleted, that will be due to MailWasher thinking the email is a touch spammy, but not spammy enough to auto-delete....
I'd also make sure your Friends List is relatively up to date.
Cheers
So instead then it's Settings >> Spam Tools >> Spam Ratings >> you can see the auto-delete option here.
Note, what is a touch different about MW 7, is that it combines the various tools to give an email a final score, then can auto-delete based of that score. As you mentioned you're happy with the accuracy, so I would start by setting to around -100 for auto-delete.
The learning (from Thumbs Up/Down) scores messages from -150 which is very spammy, to +150 which is considered very good.
This is relevant as you may still see emails flagged as SPAM, but not auto-deleted, that will be due to MailWasher thinking the email is a touch spammy, but not spammy enough to auto-delete....
I'd also make sure your Friends List is relatively up to date.
Cheers
- charles2765
- Mystified Moa
Post
Re: Blacklist vs. Spam
That's it!!
I understand now. My auto-delete was checked, but the number for auto-delete is -200. So, it's just as you explained. I see now I should set this to a lower number. (Sorry to bother you with this. It's kind of obvious now that I look at it. )
I think I'm all set now. Thanks again!
Charles
I understand now. My auto-delete was checked, but the number for auto-delete is -200. So, it's just as you explained. I see now I should set this to a lower number. (Sorry to bother you with this. It's kind of obvious now that I look at it. )
I think I'm all set now. Thanks again!
Charles
- rusticdog
- Firetrust Monkey