why is this not spam?

[David Relson]

On Wed, 4 Aug 2004 18:47:15 -0300
Trevor Smith wrote:

> On August 4, 2004 6:34 pm, David Relson wrote:
> > That's the way it's 'sposed to work.  'Tis likely that bogofilter's
> > mantra should be "train, train, train".
> 
> You know, I think bogofilter is sort of aimed at higher end users and 
> sysadmins (if it's "aimed" at anyone) but I think this does it an
> injustice.

Going back two years, I had never used SpamAssassin or any other spam
filter.  My postfix setup was straight from the Mandrake RPM (with some
substitutions of mydomain.com and ip address).  When I added bogofilter
to /etc/procmailrc, I did it with fear and trepidation.  I knew I didn't
want to lose any incoming mail.  My level of experience (more
accurately, lack of expertise) dictated lots of caution and taking
itty-bitty baby steps.

Your characterization of the "aim" is quite valid.  As a b0rked
installation can have major consequences, it's "safer" to target
experienced users.

> While it took me some tinkering to get to the stage where I knew how
> to get it running, looking back, the steps weren't that difficult. The
> information just wasn't sitting at the surface. I bet that many less
> technical users of linux could use bogofilter successfully. It's a lot
> faster than the (more user friendly) perl-based statistical spam
> filter I had set up a while back and integrating it didn't take long
> at all. Nor did training...

If you'd like to create a beginner's HOWTO, go for it !  Write it and
post it on the mailing list.  Others will provide feedback and we'll end
up with a document to add to bogofilter's distribution.

> In other words, I'm raving about bogofilter and thinking it should be
> used more widely than I bet it is! :-)

The bogofilter team wouldn't mind that :->

Regards,

David