Re: [Assp-user] Move false negatives/positives?

[John H. <jh...@cp...>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <din...@ar...>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 7:33 AM


> if I get a false negative or positive and report it via mail,
> do I have to move it out from the appropriate directory?

no, as of version 1.0.4 (i think) rebuildspamdb removes messages for you.

> As you can read in the manual and you also told me a few weeks ago:
>
>           base/spam is weighted as 1
>        base/notspam is weighted as 1
>    base/errors/spam is weighted as 2
> base/errors/notspam is weighted as 4
>
> For example I have a false negative in my nospam directory, weighted as 1.
> When I report this spam via mail it's saved in /errors/spam and weighted
> as 2. So next time when I rebuild my db it's weighted as 1 spam.
>
>  (/error/spam=2)-(/nospam=1)=(spam=1)

if the file wasn't removed from notspam that would be the case, but since
it's done for you automatically, you actually get 2.

> My intention for this is that I want assp to run mostly without
> any maintenance and that the users only have to report their spam.
> I look for assp every day, but what if I'm not there (vacation)?

This is my intention also. Assp was made for vacations!

> And how can I see if I have a false positive? If a good mail is blocked,
> I only have it in my /spam directory. And not every user tells me that
> someone tried to send him a mail :(

If I had a way to prevent false positives, they wouldn't happen in the first
place. :-) However, the spam folder is also checked for whitelisted mail.
For example:
1) Joe sends mail
2) ASSP thinks it's spam, rejects it, but puts a copy in the spam folder
3) Fred (your user) sends Joe a message -- Joe goes on the whitelist
4) rebuildspamdb runs (on a timer)
5) finds Joe's mail, and sees that Joe is now whitelisted. It deletes the
file.

Does that help?

> Another example:
> A user is waiting for a mail and asks the sender what happened.
> The sender tells him that he got an error back because it was detected as
spam.
> So the user sends him a mail that the sender is added to the whitelist.
> But what should I do with the blocked false negative (if the user tells
me)?
> Should I remove it from the /spam directory? And how can I find it when I
> use numbers for the files?
> Normally I use a tool to search in all files. But with 20000 files in
> each directory this takes much time.

Yes, this is exactly the case I described. Make sure you're using a recent
version to get this behavior.

> Now with the way ASSP works you have to look at ASSP every day and
> move the messages in the right directories.

Ahh, but it is not true!

> How can I make assp more independent that I don't have to look at it?

upgrade to the latest version? (Note I put the TCP/IP buffer in the config
file just for you.)

John