Testing junk mail filter

H

Henry

Folks:

MacOS 10.2.4 on G4, Entourage 10.1.4.

I built some of my own rules and accumulated a folder ("spam") full of spam
which appears to be representative. I moved these messages to a folder I
call "test spam".

What I want to do is apply the Junk Mail Filter to the messages in this
folder to see how good a job it does. Could not be more simple: I've
defined and enabled a rule that moves messages marked as Junk to the "spam"
folder. Now I want to test this scheme.

When I fool with JMF settings, Entourage offers me a choice to apply the JMF
to the Inbox, but unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be any
way of applying it to any other folder. Am I missing something?

I don't want to fool with the messages that are in my Inbox! I think it is
quite reasonable to have a chance to define and test on a subset of
messages. For example, I might copy a message from one of my sex-crazed
admirers into the "test spam" folder to see if it is classified as junk
based on her erotic subject line. (Disclosure: _I_ _wish_.)

I can, of course, select some messages in the "spam test" folder and choose
Message-->Apply Rule, but this doesn't appear to apply the Junk Mail Filter,
just the rule(s) I select.

Oh, yeah, there's a kludge workaround that would probably work: I could move
the contents of Inbox to some temporary location, move the contents of
"test spam" to Inbox, and fool with JMF settings. When I'm all done with
testing, I can put my Inbox back the way it was. Ummm, sorry, I don't have
enough faith in Entourage's stability to attempt this, and it takes a LONG
time to move all these messages around. There might also be a way to move
mails to a different identity (with no other messages) and test there...

What say you? Can JMF be applied to arbitrary messages in some folder? Is
there any other way of testing?

OK, there's another way: just activate the JMF and the rule and go do
something useful. I've accumulated three correctly classified spam messages
during the time it took me to type this.

Thanks,

Henry

[email protected] remove 'zzz'
 
D

Diane Ross

I can, of course, select some messages in the "spam test" folder and choose
Message-->Apply Rule, but this doesn't appear to apply the Junk Mail Filter,
just the rule(s) I select.
Click to expand...

The order of execution on Rules:
€ Mailing List Manager
€ Junk Mail Filter
€ Rules (Rules higher in the list get applied first.)

When you select "All rules" it also runs the MLM and the Junk Mail Filter.
€ To run "All rules" select from the menu bar Message->Apply
Rule->All Rules
or
€ Select messages and use the Contextual Menu to select Apply
Rule->All Rules
 
H

Henry

Diane Ross:

Thank you for your response on this thread:

The order of execution on Rules:
€ Mailing List Manager
€ Junk Mail Filter
€ Rules (Rules higher in the list get applied first.)

When you select "All rules" it also runs the MLM and the Junk Mail Filter.
€ To run "All rules" select from the menu bar Message->Apply
Rule->All Rules
or
€ Select messages and use the Contextual Menu to select Apply
Rule->All Rules
Click to expand...

OK, I think I understand the distinction you are making. The key point
is: The _only_ way to get the JMF to run is to run "All Rules".

Sorry, that's a bit confusing, because the JMF is not a "rule" in the
Entourage corner of the universe, it's a --well-- "filter". The
nomenclature isn't exactly clear on this.

Fine, my terminology isn't always clear, either.

A follow-up, please? It's going to take a little bit of setup:

I've got a ruleset called "antispam 2" that works this way:

1. If any criteria are met...
2. If the message "is junk mail"...
then:
3. Classify it as (set category to) "junk"
4. Play the "no mail" sound
5. Move it to the folder "spam"

This functions correctly; it has not allowed a single junk mail to arrive
in my InBox since I implemented it this morning. By the way, JMF is now
set to the maximum sensitivity.

Recall that I saved a bunch of spam messages moved to a folder "test spam"
by my own home-brew rules ("antispam 1") . There were about two hundred
messages in there; I selected all and applied "All Rules". Presto, I got a
bunch of "no mail" beeps and about 150 message moved into the folder "spam"
and about 50 stayed in "Test Spam".

Here comes the follow-up:

Is it correct to say that it is now up to me to figure out some additional
rules to cover those 50 or so messages that JMF didn't tag as "is junk
mail"? Any suggestions on how to go about this, in particular to figure
out what subset of the 50 or so components of my home-brew rule "antispam 1"
are necessary and which can be discarded?

Right away, I can see one of the 50 that was untouched by JMF is always also
sent to another person of very few at my small domain, so I can set up a
rule that says "if a message is sent to "[email protected]", move it to
spam." That's easy.

Thanks,

Henry

[email protected] remove 'zzz'
 
M

Mickey Stevens

OK, I think I understand the distinction you are making. The key point
is: The _only_ way to get the JMF to run is to run "All Rules".

Sorry, that's a bit confusing, because the JMF is not a "rule" in the
Entourage corner of the universe, it's a --well-- "filter". The
nomenclature isn't exactly clear on this.

Fine, my terminology isn't always clear, either.

A follow-up, please? It's going to take a little bit of setup:

I've got a ruleset called "antispam 2" that works this way:

1. If any criteria are met...
2. If the message "is junk mail"...
then:
3. Classify it as (set category to) "junk"
4. Play the "no mail" sound
5. Move it to the folder "spam"

This functions correctly; it has not allowed a single junk mail to arrive
in my InBox since I implemented it this morning. By the way, JMF is now
set to the maximum sensitivity.

Recall that I saved a bunch of spam messages moved to a folder "test spam"
by my own home-brew rules ("antispam 1") . There were about two hundred
messages in there; I selected all and applied "All Rules". Presto, I got a
bunch of "no mail" beeps and about 150 message moved into the folder "spam"
and about 50 stayed in "Test Spam".
Click to expand...

Another way to apply the Junk Mail Filter to an entire folder is to
Control-click the folder and select "Apply Junk Mail Filter" from the
contextual menu.
Here comes the follow-up:

Is it correct to say that it is now up to me to figure out some additional
rules to cover those 50 or so messages that JMF didn't tag as "is junk
mail"?
Click to expand...

Yes, you could create rules to classify more junk mail. Or you could just
manually delete these messages.

You might want to consider using SpamSieve, a Bayesian junk mail filter that
works with Entourage.
Any suggestions on how to go about this, in particular to figure
out what subset of the 50 or so components of my home-brew rule "antispam 1"
are necessary and which can be discarded?
Click to expand...

No, there is no way to see what rules/criteria acted upon a message. This
is a major limitation of Entourage in my opinion. I strongly suggest you
send a feature request for a "rule history" feature for messages so that it
would be easy to track what rules/criteria have acted upon a message.

In Entourage X, go to Help -> Send Feedback on Entourage. Otherwise, click
on this direct link to enter Mac Product Feedback:
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp>
 
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