[Spambayes] training WAS: aging information

[Mark Hammond]

[Paul]
> From: Tim Peters [mailto:tim.one at comcast.net]
> > I get a few (2 to 10) Unsures each day, but they're
> > generally so unusual I don't bother to train on them.
> 
> This made me think for a moment "how can I *not* train
> on unsures in Outlook?"
> 
> In retrospect, it's easy - just read them (or not) in
> place and then delete or file (in a folder not marked
> as "certain ham"). But the Outlook plugin has ingrained
> me with the idea that you see spam anywhere other than
> the spam folder, and you hit the "delete as spam"
> button.

Interesting.  I am in Tim's mindset - train on messages I think SpamBayes
should have caught, and just delete those wierd ones.

> The subliminal message will probably hit non-expert users,
> too, so maybe it would be useful in rewording the text on
> the button to emphasise the "train" aspect rather than the
> "get rid of" aspect. Otherwise, I can imagine the average
> user training on all unsures and FNs ad infinitum. This
> will both increase the impression that maintenance is a
> chore, and increase the spam:ham imbalance in the training
> database over time.

Do you have a specific suggestion here?  "Delete and Train as Spam" looks
way too big, at least for a top-level toolbar item.

Unfortunately, http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=208527 documents that the
"Status Bar" can not be changed via the object model :(

We could create a new top-level "Spam Status" Window that shows the progress
of SpamBayes (with this window obviously being able to be closed by the
user).  By default, these toolbar items could perform the operation and make
the window visible.

I wouldn't mind a little status window, not unlike the progress in the
Pythonwin trace window - something like:

Message 'Make Money Fast' was the 65th peice of spam detected this session.
Message 'Hi friend' was the 156th peice of good mail detected this session.
Message 'Unsure' was trained as spam, and deleted to the spam folder.

OTOH, in some ways I see this as geek-gloss that will just confuse Tim's
poor sister :)

Mark.
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