DIY Spam Filter in Python

[Peter Ballard]

Hi all,

I've no idea if this will be of any use to anyone. But since I've gone
to the effort of writing it, I might as well make it publicly
available...

Until last year, spam filtering was a source of frustration for me.
Freeware packages I tried (specifically, spamassassin and dspam) were
difficult to use. Custom rules using procmail were a pain.

Then I noticed that python came with email parsing capabilities in the
email module. So I thought that maybe custom rules in python would be
easier than (a) custom rules in procmail, or (b) deciphering the
documentation of a package. And a lot more fun.

It turned out to be very easy. I got the filter up in a few evenings,
and I've been using it successfully, and slowly enhancing it, over a
number of months.

In short: a success story for "using the batteries" - at least in my
opinion.

Source code, and a bit of documentation, is at:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pballard/diyspamfilter.html

--
Regards,

Peter Ballard
Adelaide, AUSTRALIA
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pballard/