Spam, Anti-Spam, and Email Once again, I am trying a new Spam Filter. Ever hopeful, I keep searching for a holy grail that will keep out stuff I don't want without eliminating the email I'm waiting for. So far, it hasn't worked very well. Several products have refused to work at all or have worked… Continue reading
Spam, Anti-Spam, and Email
Once again, I am trying a new Spam Filter. Ever hopeful, I keep searching for a holy grail that will keep out stuff I don't want without eliminating the email I'm waiting for.
So far, it hasn't worked very well.
- Several products have refused to work at all or have worked badly
- Two products froze my computer and in spite of the very willing efforts of the companies' developers never got sorted out. We assume it's an interaction between their software and something on my machine — but, as you imagine, I've got a lot of software on my machine and I'm not going to take it off one package at a time.
- A lot of products require that the people who want to send me mail (or receive my mail) do something. I don't think I have the right to ask for that. Moreover, I'm sure some of them just wouldn't bother (or would be away from their computers and miss the message).
- These challenge systems (see above) are designed to screen out computer generated mail. That includes the spammers, but it also includes the 100 or so electronically managed newsletters and lists I'm subscribed to. I don't want to loose them.
- When I find something that works, it often slows me down so much, taking it through its routine, that just deleting the spam is faster.
But you probably know all that, because you've been going through this, too. And we can't just do nothing because it keeps getting worse.
So here's what I think:
(1) We have to keep looking for the best filter we can find and put up with. Currently, for me, that's a New Zealand product called Mailwasher.