> My advice is to find a > way to write the software and the instructions so folks don't > have to understand technical jargon.
We have a way to do that. It's called user contribution <0.1 wink>. See FAQ 4.15: <http://spambayes.org/faq.html#i-m-not-a-programmer-but-want-to-help-out-wha t-can-i-do> Specifically, even saying that "the first half of the welcome page is hard to understand because it uses a lot of technical words like POP3, SMTP and IMAP" is a great deal more helpful than just a general "you need to make things easier for non-technical people to understand". It's important to remember that this software is *free*. You get what you pay for, and all that. All the work here is done by volunteers working in their spare time. That includes everyone that answers questions on this mailing list. There are limits to what can be done. There are non-free anti-spam products, of course. (See <http://spambayes.org/related.html> for examples). You have every right to expect that these products will be appropriately supported, including in the way of documentation. [...] > Also, I don't think you understood my comment about the > apparent normal appearance of the spam I am getting. Your > software did not alter, or add a "classification header" to > any messages. All of my spam messages are arriving exactly > the same as before, with, or without your software. If you haven't told Outlook to get mail via SpamBayes, then nothing will happen. SpamBayes doesn't know about your mail unless you get it via SpamBayes. You're connecting directly to the mail server, so SpamBayes has no way to know anything about any mail, let alone alter it. FAQ 1.5 (part 3) explains how a POP3 proxy works, if you would like to understand it. <http://spambayes.org/faq.html#is-there-a-high-level-summary-that-shows-how- spambayes-works> > Finally, when you talk about changing the connection to > localhost, I can't find that option in Outlook 98. I don't have a copy of Outlook 98 (and have never used it), so I can't say where it will be. The most likely place to look, based on my experience of Outlook 2000 and above, is in the "Tools" menu. If there is an item called something like "Accounts" in there, that would probably be it. You want to find the specific account that you are wanting filtered, and open up the properties for that account (possibly via a "Properties" button, or by double-clicking the account). In there, you will find your "incoming mail server" or "POP3 server", or something to that effect. At the moment, it will be set to whatever the address of your mail server is (e.g. "pop.example.com"). You need to change this to "localhost" (no quotes). > For example, your question about localhost > does not tell me where to type it, nor how to type it. I > found some references on the http://localhost:8880/config > page, but no guidance. The "read me" (the name gives it away!) that the installer offers to open when you install SpamBayes explains this. It doesn't give specific instructions about how to do it ("You need to set your mail client to receive mail from localhost rather than your mail server."), because the instructions will be different for every mail client (Outlook 98, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, ...). The most common client that people have trouble with is Outlook Express, and that is explained in great detail in the FAQ: <http://spambayes.org/faq.html#how-do-i-set-up-spambayes-and-outlook-express > I'm not sure how to explain how to type something. You find the key on the keyboard that looks most like an "l" and push that one, and go from there <wink>. I'm obviously missing your point; feel free to clarify and I'll try to answer seriously. > I guess the bottom line is that Spambayes is really for > teckkies. No doubt, it is a fine product. The Outlook plug-in is *extremely* easy to use. If you were using a version of Outlook that was 5 years out of date, instead of 7 years out of date, you could use that, and wouldn't have any trouble <0.2 wink>. The POP3 proxy isn't as easy to use/setup. This is gradually changing - if you compared the process of getting it running now to how it was a couple of years ago, then you would find that it is vastly easier. The speed at which this can improve is very limited when everything requires volunteer effort, but it is improving. The challenges are greater when trying to provide simple setup for a solution that isn't tied to a specific mail client. That doesn't mean that it isn't possible, and there has been work done towards this, which will be completed at some point. It does mean that it takes longer to get the non-plug-in version to the level of simplicity that a plug-in version can reach. However, there are a great number of non-technical people that have managed to setup SpamBayes successfully (otherwise we wouldn't have a FAQ answer specifically for Outlook Express!). Once it is running, you should find (if you continue with it) that it is simple to use, and very effective. =Tony.Meyer -- Please always include the list (spambayes at python.org) in your replies (reply-all), and please don't send me personal mail about SpamBayes. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~tameyer/writing/reply_all.html explains this. _______________________________________________ [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html
