Re: Noob seeks help with splitting and spam

[Richard Riley]

Jim Burton <jim@sdf-eu.org> writes:

> Jim Burton <jim@sdf-eu.org> writes:
>
>> Hi, I've just started with Gnus, and I'm confused about the whole
>> splitting business and how I can use that to deal with spam. I decided,
>> somewhat arbitrarily, that I should use bogofilter. So I read the wiki
>> page about setting it up with gnus and the other resources I could find
>> on the subject, installed  bogofilter and so far I have this in ~/.gnus:
>>
>> (require 'spam)
>> (require 'gnus-bogofilter)
>> (setq spam-use-bogofilter t
>>       spam-split-group "spam")
>> (spam-initialize)
>> (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(| (: spam-split)))
>>
>> Finally, I presumed this required me to make a group called "spam", so I
>> did (with U "spam"), but I can't select that group as I get "couldn't
>> activate group".  As I understand it, I should now be able to use C-c g
>> s on a message to mark it as spam and move it into my "spam" folder?
>> Doing that doesn't seem to have any effect. 
>
> In fact it *does* have an effect. When I leave the summary page after
> marking something as spam or ham I get a message "applying spam rules",
> and the messages marked as spam are moved, or at least are not displayed
> to me when I enter that group again. Where is the spam being "moved" to,
> if anywhere, and if I train bogofilter in this way will my current setup
> start to detect spam and move it to the same place before I even see it?
> Obviously, this is how I'd like it work, and I also want to check for
> false positives once it does.
>

Spam filtering is confusing to start with. This is apparent
from the same issues cropping up in #emacs and other resources.  That
said its incredibly powerful. 

I'm not sure how group settings for "auto spam check" work when set in
conjunction with nnimap-inbox and spam-split.

But this is how my working setup looks:-

    (setq spam-use-bogofilter t)
    
    (require 'spam)
    (spam-initialize)
    
    (setq nnimap-inbox "INBOX")
    (setq nnimap-split-methods 'default)
    (setq nnimap-split-download-body t)
    
    (setq nnmail-split-fancy '(|(: spam-split)))
    (setq nnmail-split-methods 'nnmail-split-fancy)
    
    (setq spam-autodetect-recheck-messages nil)
    (setq spam-mark-ham-unread-before-move-from-spam-group t)
    (setq spam-mark-new-messages-in-spam-group-as-spam t)
    (setq spam-split-group "Gnus-Spam")

In the group customisation for my INBOXs (G c) I set :-

,----
|[X] Spam Summary Exit Processor: [Value Menu] Spam Summary Exit Processor 
Choices:
|     Set:
|     [X] Spam: Bogofilter
|     [ ] Spam: Blacklist
|  
`----

Q: does this have to be set? Is spam-use-bogofilter in addition or a
precursor to this working?

,----
| [X] Destination for spam-processed articles at summary exit: [Value Menu] 
Move to multiple groups:
|     [INS] [DEL] Destination group: nnimap+riley:Gnus-Spam
|     [INS]
|     Where spam-processed articles will go at summary exit.
`----

note : fully qualified.

Its in Gnus-Spam that I can recheck. The group customisation settings
for there are:

,----
| [X] Group contents spam/ham classification:
|     Group contents classification for spam sorting: [Value Menu] 
gnus-group-spam-classification-spam
|         Spam group classification (requires spam.el). [More]
|  
`----

the concept of "spam" and ham groups can be confusing too. mark as ham?
Its ham. Mark as spam? Its spam. The corresponding exit processors take
care. I need to reread the manual I think. e.g is INBOX a spam folder?
or a ham folder? or nothing? It certainly contains ham. And often
contains spam which I manually mark with M-d and is then moved to
gnus-spam when I exit the group. But what kind of group is it?

,----
| [X] Spam Summary Exit Processor: [Value Menu] Spam Summary Exit Processor 
Choices:
|     Set:
|     [X] Spam: Bogofilter
|  
`----

,----
| [X] Destination for spam-processed articles at summary exit: [Value Menu] 
Move to multiple groups:
|     [INS] [DEL] Destination group: nnimap+riley:Trash
|     [INS]
`----

,----
| [X] Destination for ham articles at summary exit from a spam group: [Value 
Menu] Move to a group: nnimap+riley:mail
|     Where ham articles will go at summary exit from a spam group.
`----


,----
| [X] Ham mark choices:
|     Set:
|     [ ] gnus-del-mark
|                 Mark used for del'd articles.
|     [ ] gnus-read-mark
|                 Mark used for read articles.
|     [X] gnus-ticked-mark
|                 Mark used for ticked articles.
|     [ ] gnus-killed-mark
|                 Mark used for killed articles.
|     [ ] gnus-kill-file-mark
|                 Mark used for articles killed by kill files.
|     [ ] gnus-low-score-mark
|                 Mark used for articles with a low score.
|     Marks considered ham (positively not spam).  Such articles will be [More]
| 
| [X] Spam mark choices:
|     Set:
|     [X] gnus-spam-mark
|                 Mark used for spam articles.
`----
 
Anyway, I hope this helps! "works for me" ... ;)