.
Junk Spy is a _wonderful_ program that flags a huge amount of the spam
messages which arrive here.
Yes, I have some other filters which also check for spam. Junk Spy
allows you to place additional filters into the Junk Spy dictionary but
I keep mine separate so that it is easier to test how much extra stuff
my own filters catch. Junk Spy catches most spam without any additional
help, and it catches a much higher percentage than my own filters do.
After all, Junk Spy contains several hundred spam filters! Nobody wants
to write several hundred of their own filters and then have to worry
about maintaining them as the spammers get smarter. (On one of my email
accounts Junk Spy typically catches 100% of the spam; on my others which
I combine Junk Spy catches over 90%.)
Bayesian filtering is *not* "better". It is different. I've spent
thousands of hours on pattern recognition research over the years
(albeit not usually English language patterns) and Junk Spy's
human-created dictionary matches what I've learned over and over again
-- you need a human brain up front to make sure the thing is working
right. Junk Spy constantly issues free dictionary updates (I just got
another one) which they create by reviewing spam messages. There's a
Bayesian movement to have a massive group of volunteers send in their
results, but this becomes an incredible mess when the spammers of the
world surreptitiously join that same movement and start supplying their
own results to the database saying "male stretchers aren't spam" and
"anything saying OS/2 is spam". I'm not making this up; the Junk Spy
people have already seen it and they get around the problem by applying
a human touch.
Junk Spy is proven. Bayesian is not.
And I'm not knocking your custom filters, Steven. But you should add
Junk Spy to your email chain and put its massive spam filter after your
own. I think you will find that Junk Spy catches a decent amount of
junk mail that your own filters don't catch. I've run this test myself
several times and Junk Spy is well worth having.
Steven, you are right that I have a huge amount of shelfware. But a few
things are critical, and one of them is getting rid of time-wasting
spam. Junk Spy works great. I just took a quick look at the contents
of my Junk Spy email folder and it's catching about 30 spam messages
every day. That's 200 junk mails a week I don't have to see -- or
10,000 a year. The time savings is incredible and it requires _no_ work
on my part.
Care to share your MR/2 filters?
- Peter
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