Fischer or Robinson when using -u -e -p with maildrop

[David Relson]

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 23:01:34 +0800
Yusuf Goolamabbas <yusufg at outblaze.com> wrote:

> Hi, I am presently using the Robinson mechanism in bogofilter where I
> invoke it via maildrop with  -r -u -e -p. Should I switch to the
> Fischer method, would I gain/lose anything ? I believe with -u -e -p,
> I will not take into account the "unsure" state which Fischer offers
> me
> 
> Regards, Yusuf

Hello Yusuf,

Long ago, Gary Robinson suggested using the Fisher modification to his
algorithm.  At the end of the calculation a chi-square test is done. 
This results in low scores being squeezed towards 0 and high scores
towards 1, thus reducing the number of mid-range scores.  I think of
this as a "certainty" test -- the chi-square test looks at the spam/ham
score and the number of tokens involved and produces a result that
indicates bogofilters "certainty" that the message is ham or spam.

By all means, drop the "-r" option and let bogofilter use its default
algorithm (Fisher).  Whether you set a ham_cutoff value to take
advantage of tri-state results is up to you.  Some people, like me,
swear by it and other people won't touch it with a ten foot pole.

David