Thunderbird junk mail controls
This is an overview of the junk mail controls in Mozilla's latest incarnation of Thunderbird (version 1.5 at the time of this writing). Firstly, a few words about the general process involved.
Thunderbird makes use of Bayesian spam filtering (for more information on this, take a look at the Wikipedia entry) . This basically means that it learns over time - the longer you give it, the better it gets. In addition to this method you have the option at any time to mark a message as 'junk'. Rest assured, after a couple of weeks you'll rarely be doing this.
After installing and configuring Thunderbird, the first thing to do is to look at the Junk Mail controls. These are available from the Tools -> Junk Mail Controls menu.
The first dialog shows the basic junk settings. If the 'Handling' section isn't switched on, do so now and automatically move junk messages to a folder of your choice (the default is a folder appropriately named 'junk'). This way you can keep an eye on the messages Thunderbird thinks are junk, and make adjustments as necessary (I very rarely have to alter anything here).
Once you're satisfied with what is automatically going into the 'junk' folder, you might like to delete them after a set period of time. This is the option 'Automatically delete junk messages older than ...'.
Near the bottom of this dialog you'll see a button for 'Junk Mail Log' This simply keeps a record of everything Thunderbird thinks is junk, for later analysis. Leave it switched of
f until you really need it (it slows things down slightly).
Closing the Junk Mail Log window (so you're back to the original dialog) you'll notice an Adaptive Filter tab at
the top. This is on by default, and is where the Bayesian filtering can be switched off/on. It also enables you to re-start the teaching process at any time.
When it comes to manually marking messages as junk (to educate the Bayesian filter), there are a couple of ways to do this. My preference is to use the column on the list of messages itself - clicking beside a message will toggle on/off the junk status. The message will then be treated according to your settings in Junk Mail Controls. Alternatives are to select the Messages -> Mark -> As Junk option (a little lengthy perhaps) or to simply select the message and press 'J' o
n the keyboard.
Thunderbird makes use of Bayesian spam filtering (for more information on this, take a look at the Wikipedia entry) . This basically means that it learns over time - the longer you give it, the better it gets. In addition to this method you have the option at any time to mark a message as 'junk'. Rest assured, after a couple of weeks you'll rarely be doing this.
After installing and configuring Thunderbird, the first thing to do is to look at the Junk Mail controls. These are available from the Tools -> Junk Mail Controls menu.
The first dialog shows the basic junk settings. If the 'Handling' section isn't switched on, do so now and automatically move junk messages to a folder of your choice (the default is a folder appropriately named 'junk'). This way you can keep an eye on the messages Thunderbird thinks are junk, and make adjustments as necessary (I very rarely have to alter anything here).Once you're satisfied with what is automatically going into the 'junk' folder, you might like to delete them after a set period of time. This is the option 'Automatically delete junk messages older than ...'.
Near the bottom of this dialog you'll see a button for 'Junk Mail Log' This simply keeps a record of everything Thunderbird thinks is junk, for later analysis. Leave it switched of
f until you really need it (it slows things down slightly).Closing the Junk Mail Log window (so you're back to the original dialog) you'll notice an Adaptive Filter tab at
the top. This is on by default, and is where the Bayesian filtering can be switched off/on. It also enables you to re-start the teaching process at any time.When it comes to manually marking messages as junk (to educate the Bayesian filter), there are a couple of ways to do this. My preference is to use the column on the list of messages itself - clicking beside a message will toggle on/off the junk status. The message will then be treated according to your settings in Junk Mail Controls. Alternatives are to select the Messages -> Mark -> As Junk option (a little lengthy perhaps) or to simply select the message and press 'J' o
n the keyboard.
posted by Unknown at 7:23 AM
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