Long-time Gnomie, Rob Vonderhaar:

Just a couple comments after
reading your article about ChoiceMail. First, many ISPs offer similar 'preconfirmed' email
options within their own servers – so readers that DO want to use this
approve-in-advance approach to elminating spam may well be able to do it
without installing anything at all on the client end.

That said, I personally detest these setups! It essentially transfers the
burden of solving someone elses's spam problems onto the backs of those who
send them legitimate emails. After carefully composing an email to someone,
I resent having it “bounced” back to me with a message that I am not an
“approved” sender, and forcing me to then take some additional step to
petition for the recipient's approval. Not only does this add more junk
into my mailbox, but costs me time to go through the approval process. I
had several of these in a row one morning, and I now simply won't do it
unless the email is really vital. If they can't take care of their own spam
issues, don't expect to get mail from me!

I'm not just bitching, though: I'll finish by offering what I think is a
better alternative. For at least a couple years, I have been using K9 (free!) for anti-spam. Like
ChoiceMail, it's a proxy server between the ISP and client — but installs
quickly and even auto-configures the client email accounts in most cases.
Right out of the box, K9's Bayesian filters catch the majority of spam. But
the key to real success is to 'train' it by reclassifying any new spam that
slips through — that's how you stay ahead of new spammer tricks.

K9 keeps detailed stats, and since Sept 6, 2004, it has achieved 98.86%
accuracy. Of a total of 42,536 incoming emails, 6.834 were caught as spam
(16.07%). In that 7-month period, I've manually reclassified as “spam” the
1.14% (483 items) that slipped past K9. Although K9 offers 'whitelists' and
'blacklists', I have never used them.

It's interesting that, for weeks on end, I get zero missed spam — and then
all of sudden, K9 lets a handful slip through over a few day period. I
think it happens when spammers come up with a new trick to evade K9, but
once I “teach” it about the new items (just takes a few clicks to reclassify
them), they don't get past again!

Most importantly: In all of the years I've relied on K9, I have NEVER had
it give me a “false positive” where a valid email is marked as spam! I know
this is almost unheard-of, but it is absolutely true. I have all the spam
dumped into a separate folder, and then quickly eyeball it every day or two
before deleting — so I'm very sure I haven't missed anything.

Anyway, I know that K9 has been mentioned on Lockergnome before (may have
been where I first learned of it so long ago?) but I heartily recommend it
to anyone needing a non-invasive approach that won't irritate people who
send things to you! I've tried many similar products, but always end up
coming back to K9 — especially since it's totally FREE!

I'm
using SpamBayes with Outlook
2000.