[Spambayes] Spambayes Software and SPAM folder

[Tim Peters]

[Lily Cornely]
> Someone here told me that you need to not delete your SPAM folder as
> the software needs it to know what is "spam". Is this correct? This
> would seem to be a flaw as this file will build up dramatically over
> time and be impossible to manage.
>
> Please advise. Can I empty my SPAM folder - or not?

You shouldn't delete your spam folder itself.  Deleting the mail items
*within* your spam folder is a different thing entirely, and you can suit
yourself there.  There are pluses and minuses in both directions.  SpamBayes
remembers the things it cares about in its own database, which isn't
affected by whether or not you keep the messages you've trained on.
However, if you delete them, and have a problem which requires retraining
the classifier (for example, if the SpamBayes database becomes corrupted
after a power outage), then you'll have no spam to train on at first, and
will just have to wait to get more.  Whether that's something you can live
with is up to you.

It so happens that I save all my training spam, and copies of all my
training ham, in another .pst file dedicated to holding training data.  I'm
not recommending that you do the same, just saying there are many
possibilities.