Re: spam/ham processing

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, colman@ppllc.com wrote:

> 1) If a folder is declared a spam folder, and I set up a spam exit
>    processor, the contents of that folder will be sent to spam
>    processor so that it can be trained as spam.  Eventually, in an
>    ideal world, I would expect all those messages to go directly to
>    my general spambox as soon as they are seen, since my processor
>    has been trained, and not even hit this folder.  Is this correct?

Spam groups' classification matters only as far as first-seen or
unread mail.  Such mail be marked as spam when you enter that group.

Spam articles *anywhere* are processed by the exit spam processor.
Ham articles are treated differently based on the group
classification.  See the manual, please.

> 2) In a spam folder, the default mark is the spam mark.  How do I
>    mark sonmething as ham?  When I exit the folder, if I have
>    specified both hm and spam exit processors, will both kinds of
>    message be sent out to be trained?

Spam and ham marks are actually customizable (though spam marks should
probably be just the spam mark).  Do `G c' on a group or topic to
customize its spam/ham marks, or use M-x customize-variable on the
variables gnus-parameter-ham-marks-alist and
gnus-parameter-spam-marks-alist to achieve the same effect.  This is
in the manual.

> 3) In a spam folder, the default action is to expire the spam
>    contents.  What is the default action for the ham?

It depends on the folder, but by default nothing is done.

> 4) My spambox has the following configuration
> 
> ((uidvalidity . "71437")
>  (timestamp 16288 15245)
>  (total-expire . t)
>  (spam-contents gnus-group-spam-classification-spam)
>  (spam-process
>   (gnus-group-spam-exit-processor-bogofilter
>   gnus-group-ham-exit-processor-bogofilter))
>  (ham-process-destination . "nnimap+hamilton:INBOX/Misc")
>  (ham-marks
>   (gnus-read-mark))
>  (expiry-wait . immediate))
> 
>    If I mark something in there as ham, by pressing 'd' and changing
>    the mark to 'r', it should be moved to Misc box.  Instead, it
>    disappared.  How do I figure out what happned to it?

When it's marked as read, an article won't show up.  Try entering Misc
with C-u ENTER to see all the articles in it.  I set
spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group [1] to t, personally,
and that way all ham that is moved out of a spam group is marked
unread.

> 5) I guess all groups should speicy both a ham and spam exit
>    processor, no?  

It's up to the user.  You can choose to do so.

> This way all group's contents can be used for training.  The default
> classification for the folder (ham/spam) should reflect the status
> of the majortity of the mesages sent to that folder.  Does this make
> sense?

Yes, but again, it's up to the user.  There's an incredible variety of
setups among Gnus users, and spam processing is done by them in
different ways, so spam.el tries to be as flexible as possible.

Ted