On Aug 9, 2006, at 10:59 PM, Allan Poindexter wrote:
At LISA a couple of years ago a Microsoftie got up at the SPAM symposium and told of an experiment they did where they asked their hotmail users to identify their mail messages as spam or not. He said the users got it wrong some small percentage amount of the time. I was stunned at the arrogance and presumption in that comment. You can't tell from looking at the contents, source, or destination if something is spam because none of these things can tell whether the message was requested or is wanted by the recipient. The recipient is the only person who can determine these things.
I'm gonna hold up the "I call bullshit" card here. Recipients most certainly *can* get it wrong. Things I've seen "reported as spam": - An autoresponse from "abuse@DOMAIN" telling the user that the e- mail they had JUST sent to abuse@DOMAIN had been accepted and was being fed to a human being for processing - Receipts for online purchases the user legitimately made ... and numerous other things just like this that, whether the user wants to call it "spam" or not, certainly is not "spam". So yes, I would have to -- as much as it pains me in my heart of hearts -- agree with the Hotmail representative in your example. Users can and will get it wrong at the very least some small percentage of the time. Cheers, D -- Derek J. Balling Manager of Systems Administration Vassar College 124 Raymond Ave Box 0406 - Computer Center 217 Poughkeepsie, NY 12604 W: (845) 437-7231 C: (845) 249-9731