[Spambayes] no spam caught

[Tony Meyer]

> I train it by clicking on the spambayes tab which is 
> installed in Outlook, and then the configuration wizard. I 
> just did it - it looks to me that its 'memory' wipes out any 
> record of any previous training sessions.

Yes, the wizard is from (re)starting from scratch, only.  If you'd like to
help us out, you could suggest an alternative wording to the dialog that
would make this clearer, so that people can avoid being caught by this in
the future.

The best way to train (in general) is to use the "Delete As Spam" and
"Recover From Spam" buttons on the toolbar.  Simply select the messages that
you want to train and click one of those buttons.  Alternatively, you can do
training in the same sort of way that the configuration wizard does by using
the "Training" tab of the Manager dialog (but be sure that the "Rebuild
entire database" box is not ticked).

> I'm afraid the 
> instructions for finding the logfiles are far too vague for 
> me. I am an ordinary PC user with no expertise. I would not 
> know where to look for Documents and 
> Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp for Windows 2000/XP.

Could you let us know at which point you have trouble?  The guide says:

"""
If you are running the binary version, the simplest way to get hold of the
most recent log is to:

   1. Open the SpamBayes Manager dialog (from the SpamBayes toolbar)
   2. Click the Advanced tab.
   3. Click the Diagnostics button.
   4. Click the View log button.

To find the log manually, you'll need to find your Windows temp directory,
into which the SpamBayes addin writes the log. This directory is generally
\WINDOWS\TEMP for Windows 9x, or \Documents and Settings\{username}\Local
Settings\Temp for Windows 2000/XP.

Note that by default, in Windows 2000 and XP, Windows Explorer will not show
the Local Settings directory, as it is hidden.  You can convince Windows
Explorer to show this directory (and therefore allow you to see the Temp
directory under it by doing either:

    * Select the folder \Documents and Settings\{username}.  This directory
should be reflected in the Address Bar.  In the Address Bar, simply type at
the end "\Local Settings" (thereby giving that full path name), and press
Enter.  Explorer will then show this folder.

or

    * Select Tools->Folder Options, select the View tab, and in the list,
select Show hidden files and folders.  Select OK.  This folder will now be
visible.  You may like to then reset this option back to the default value.

The log file for the most recent execution of Outlook is named
spambayes1.log, the second most recent is named spambayes2.log, and so on
for the four previous runs. 
"""

I would have thought that the first method (with the four steps) was
reasonably straight-forward.

=Tony.Meyer

-- 
Please always include the list (spambayes at python.org) in your replies
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http://www.massey.ac.nz/~tameyer/writing/reply_all.html explains this.