From: Aaron Turner Date: 2009-06-07T03:12:12+09:00 Subject: Re: SPAM from Usenet On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Bill Kelly wrote: > > From: "Robert Klemme" >> >> Actually, IMHO this is wrong for two reasons: first, you can read GMail >> via POP or IMAP. > > Oh.  Didn't know that, thanks. > >>  Second, GMail's spam filtering is pretty good and I believe your spam >> marks train the filter.  I believe at least in theory a spam filter of a >> mail provider with web access can be much better than a local filter because >> there is more training input. > > Haha, yes.  In theory. > > But in practice why are gmailers complaining about spam > on ruby-talk? Not working for Google I can't but guess, but my belief is that it's one or both of: 1) Gmail's spam filtering see's the spamassassin headers added by the gateway and uses that to augment it's own ratings. Since SpamAssassin marks it clean, gmail thinks it is clean too. 2) Gmail believes that mail sent via a mailing list has a lower likelihood of being spam since most lists nowadays are closed and spammers generally don't bother subscribing and this skews the ratings sufficiently that it isn't marked as spam. As for training gmail, yes I do that. I can't say it really helps. I'd say 99% of the spam which reaches my inbox is via the ruby-talk list even though ruby-talk spam is only 1-2% of the spam in my spam folder. Also, earlier in the thread were were told NOT to do that because it generates problems for the list maintainer... I'm not sure why that is true though. For those who want to read via NNTP, couldn't they subscribe and turn off delivery? That way they can read via news and we'd still have a way to authenticate their posts. Also, I know the svn users list is open, but they have a pool of mods who approve messages to keep spam off the lists. -- Aaron Turner http://synfin.net/ http://tcpreplay.synfin.net/ - Pcap editing and replay tools for Unix & Windows Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin