On February 25, 2009 at 04:26 stefan@csudsu.com (Stefan Molnar) wrote:
For our userbase with yahoo/hotmail/aol accouts they hit the spam button more often than delete. Then complain they do not get emails anymore from us, then want discounts on a bill of sale they missed. It is a never ending story.
I realize this is easier in theory than practice but I wonder how much better the whole AOL (et al) spam button would get if they ignored the spam button unless two (to pick a number) different customers clicked the same sender (I know, forged sender etc but something like that) as spam in a reasonably short amount of time like an hour or a day at most. I know of the 99.99% false positives I get I am pretty sure if the threshold were two related complaints it'd get rid of, well, probably 99.99% of them (percentages not scientifically accurate!) Ok, that's not an algorithm but I hope you see my point. My point is that what makes spam "spam" is not that some one clicks a spam button, it's that more than one person, and just two might be a sufficient threshold in practice, believes it's spam. At least from the POV of a network operator trying to id spam sources from spam button clicks. If they ever get it down to fretting about spams really sent to only one AOL (et al) customer then one could revisit this idea. P.S. I thought about this a little and decided it's more in the realm of network operations than spam per se, the same idea could be applied to any number of customer-reported problems which ripple outwards. It reminds me of years ago when I worked with the Boston Fire Dept and as you ran for the trucks the sure sign there really was a fire was fire alarm shouting over the house loudspeaker "CALLS COMING IN!" which meant hq was getting more than one unrelated report (fire box, phone) in the same general location. Then your heartbeat increased. That is, one call, who knows, two or more unrelated? Must be something. -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Login: Nationwide Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*