Comments on: spam || !spam http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86 A Pythoneer's adventures with Scheme, etc. Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:37:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: John Cowan http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86/comment-page-1#comment-192 John Cowan Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:34:39 +0000 http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86#comment-192 Indeed, the fact that identical or very similar emails are sent to thousands or tens of thousands of Gmail users is a strong suggestion that they are spam -- which is not something that any one user's email filter can pick up, obviously. Indeed, the fact that identical or very similar emails are sent to thousands or tens of thousands of Gmail users is a strong suggestion that they are spam — which is not something that any one user’s email filter can pick up, obviously.

]]> By: Hans Nowak http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86/comment-page-1#comment-190 Hans Nowak Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:32:24 +0000 http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86#comment-190 I didn't know you worked at Google, John. Although it doesn't come as a complete surprise... =) So, in other words, GMail's spam filter is based on all users' mail and spam, rather than being personalized. Makes sense. I also like pjdelport's idea of sticking a label to notification messages... I'm going to try that right now. Thanks! I didn’t know you worked at Google, John. Although it doesn’t come as a complete surprise… =)

So, in other words, GMail’s spam filter is based on all users’ mail and spam, rather than being personalized. Makes sense.

I also like pjdelport’s idea of sticking a label to notification messages… I’m going to try that right now.

Thanks!

]]> By: Piet Delport http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86/comment-page-1#comment-184 Piet Delport Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:41:13 +0000 http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86#comment-184 Hans Nowak: I'm not sure how it interacts with spam filtering, but you can try setting up a filter to label these notifications. Hans Nowak: I’m not sure how it interacts with spam filtering, but you can try setting up a filter to label these notifications.

]]> By: John Cowan http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86/comment-page-1#comment-183 John Cowan Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:03:15 +0000 http://4.flowsnake.org/archives/86#comment-183 Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on GMail, and I don't know any secrets about it, though if I did I couldn't tell you. From what I understand, clicking Report Spam doesn't directly affect the filtering of your personal incoming spam. Rather, it just provides another data point for Google's general spam-catching algorithm. With something over 10 million users, what you do or don't do about a particular message isn't going to have huge knock-on effects for any one user, not even you. So if it looks spammy, go ahead and report it -- it helps Google's filters improve incrementally. It's pretty unlikely that a class of valid messages will all come to be treated as spam unless the overwhelming majority of that class contains spammy stuff -- which seemingly is not the case. Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on GMail, and I don’t know any secrets about it, though if I did I couldn’t tell you.

From what I understand, clicking Report Spam doesn’t directly affect the filtering of your personal incoming spam. Rather, it just provides another data point for Google’s general spam-catching algorithm. With something over 10 million users, what you do or don’t do about a particular message isn’t going to have huge knock-on effects for any one user, not even you.

So if it looks spammy, go ahead and report it — it helps Google’s filters improve incrementally. It’s pretty unlikely that a class of valid messages will all come to be treated as spam unless the overwhelming majority of that class contains spammy stuff — which seemingly is not the case.

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