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Another Whack at Spam

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the problems-that-won't-be-solved-until-2006 dept.

mmoncur writes "Tim Bray just put up an article called Another Whack at Spam that has been getting some attention. It just looks like a variation of the old pay to send idea to me."

2 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Any generic word should work the same... by KarmaPolice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So the basic idea of the article (I guess I'm not a real hardcore /. reader since I bothered to read the article) is that every mail is sent through a common SMTP relay and everyone that wants to e-mail you, must sign up with that company.

    Then you filter all e-mail not sent through that relay...i.e. e-mails not signed by them!

    Here's a cheaper idea: I tell everyone I know to start the subject line with "goat" if they want to e-mail me. Then I filter all e-mail without "goat" as the first word in the subject...

  2. Mebbe learn to write a bayesian filter? by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Tim fails to understand that he's still getting spam only for the reason that his Bayesian filter sucks. Most other Bayesian-style filters (and friends) are up to a 99.9% filter rate and working towards five-nines efficiency. Their learning potential continues to improve as well with new concepts such as inoculation. It's no longer a question of "can we filter spam" it's a question of "how do we stop that one in a thousand spams that get through"...and that's soon going to be one-in-ten thousand. The problem is that only a small number of people have actually done any research in this area and tried Bayesian-style filtering. If they did, they would realize it worked ... very effectively. There are also server-side tools that make it easy for the 95% of non-tech people on the Internet. Bottom line, Tim needs to quit his bichin and go rewrite his spam filter - or install someone else's.