[spambayes-dev] button ideas (oh boy)

[Seth Goodman]

Using the Outlook plug-in for regimes other than mistake based training for
a while now, I think there are two places where a second button would make
things a lot simpler.  These other training strategies all involve training
on some messages that are already correctly classified.  This is currently
not very easy with the plug-in and I suspect that it discourages some people
from experimenting with different training regimes.  I have been told that
everyone is born knowing how to program in Python.  I haven't tested that,
probably because I couldn't handle failing at something I was born knowing
how to do.

Here is specifically what I am proposing, and the names of the buttons are
completely up for grabs.

1) In the Inbox (and other watched ham folders), there could be a second
button for "Train As Good" for messages that have scores too far from zero.
Pressing the button would train the message as ham and keep it in the
current folder.

2) In the Spam folder, there could be a second button for "Train As Spam"
for messages that have scores too far from 100%.  Pressing the button would
train on the message as spam and keep it in the Spam folder.

It's more complicated than we now have, but it's simpler than moving the
message to the Unsure folder, then having to press either "Delete As Spam"
(not too bad) or "Recover From Spam" (totally confusing, since the message
was not classified as spam).  This way, we would always have two buttons
visible in every folder, but the name of the second button would change with
the context.  I know that this makes the code more complicated, but it makes
sense from the user standpoint.

I suppose at this point someone will point out that if I think this is such
a cool idea, why don't I just code it up myself.  Good point, this is open
source.  But let me remind you, I'm a long-time hardware guy (and a good
one!) ... think about that a half dozen times or so before suggesting that I
program anything in any language besides English or VHDL.  Be careful, you
may get what you wish for.  State machines, transmission lines and analog
circuits, no problem.  Object classes and encapsulation, I dunno.  Python?
I'm afraid of snakes.

--

Seth Goodman