Using a Junk Folder for Training on IMAP account...

Hi,

I was wondering how you can use the IMAP ‘Junk’ folder as the the folder to send email marked as ‘Train as Spam’.

I’m also running SpamAssassin on my email server and would like to send Spam that gets through SpamSieve as well back the IMAP ‘Junk’ folder so there is one centralised junk folder on the server that SpamAssassin can learn from.

I’ve changed the SpamSieve rule so that auto-detected Spam is moved to that folder, but how so I specify that the ‘Junk’ folder on the server is where to send mail marked as ‘Train as Spam’?

thanks in advance,

/ Hami

Are you using Apple Mail? If so, you can choose Change Settings and say No for * Should messages marked using “Train as Spam” be stored in a local spam mailbox (rather than on the server)?*

Hi Michael - Yes I am using Apple Mail. I did as you suggested but when I “Train as Spam” it still moves the Spam to a Local Folder. Here are my settings…

Spam Sieve Rule
Every Message Move Message to ‘Junk’ (Junk is a folder on the server.

Spam Sieve Settings
Which Mailbox should spam messages be moved to when using “Train as Spam”?
Junk
Should messages marked using “Train as Spam” be stored in a local spam mailbox (rather than on the server)?
No
Should “Train as Spam” mark messages as read?
Yes
When you use “Train as Spam” on a message in the spam mailbox, should the message be moved back to the inbox?
Yes
When you use “Train as Spam” on a message in the spam mailbox, should the message be marked as read?
Yes
Should incoming spam messages be coloured according to how spammy they are (darker means more spammy)?
Yes

I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong?

Also can you explain what the colours are, I’ve seen Yellow and Red in as well as Blues from Gray Blue to Bright Blue to Purple (which I assume are how spammy they are). Is there any way to define what colour spam is?

thanks,

/ Hami

Is your IMAP account with the “Junk” folder at the top of the accounts list in Mail’s preferences?

The colors are described here. It’s not possible to change them due to the way Mail works.

not to hijack this but…
I love SpamSeive as it does a fantastic job, but I really want to improve my server side filtering for various reasons instead of being forced to use my mac to avoid spam (think occasional webmail, reading on my phone, ebing able to help other users on my server with spam, etc) :slight_smile:

So I set this up based on Michael’s directions above (i use IMAP as well) but I haven’t had the “opportunity” to test having to train a real unmatched message as spam. I did move one that had already been caught back into my inbox, and it did move it back to the Junk folder on the server when I trained it.

But, I wanted to ask Michael if you would comment how/why SpamSieve is so much more accurate than SpamAssassin. Is it just because of the proper training? I am hoping this is true, and that training SpamAssassin off the ones caught by SpamSieve will help.

thanks
charles

I think it’s mostly that they are designed differently. Also, depending on how they’re set up, SpamAssassin may be sharing its corpus among several different users, and it may not have the opportunity to be corrected when it makes a mistake.

Thanks. I’ve been training SA for a few days with the spam SpamSieve has caught, but on my system each user has it’s own corpus. I negelected this fact so it seems I have been training root’s corpus and not mine :slight_smile: I’ll give it a few days against mine, and let you know what I find.

Thanks again for a great product. Except for the fact that I feel captive to my mac, it has truly made spam a “interesting problem” for me as opposed to a bloody nightmare.

charles