JunkMatcher Howto: Log

How do I correct JunkMatcher's mistakes in the Log window?

Firstly, note that this is only one of the two ways to correct JunkMatcher: you can also make/revert corrections directly from within Mail.app, with the added benefit that your correction will simultaneously train Mail.app's built-in filter.

Inside the Log window, every entry gets a "Junk?" checkbox - if it is checked, it means that the message has been classified by JunkMatcher as junk (the entries are also color-coded so you can spot the clean/corrected emails more easily).

(Also note some of the messages are marked by a shade of light blue in the Received Date column - it means that they have been used to train SpamBayes)

You can correct JunkMatcher's mistake by changing the verdict of an email: just click on the "Junk?" checkbox to reverse the verdict. The first click will mark the entry "corrected" (in different color), and a second click will revert the correction (no color).

What does my correction actually do?

When you make a correction by changing the verdict of an email, JunkMatcher will update the statistics of all of the tests that have been conducted on that email. In addition to that, correcting a false positive (i.e., a clean email was falsely classified as junk) will:

1. Add the sender's address into the Whitelist.
2. Remove all of the URLs mentioned in the email from the Bad Site collection.
3. Train SpamBayes with that email as ham.

Conversely, correcting a false negative (i.e., missed junk) will add all of the URLs mentioned in the email into the Bad Site collection, and train SpamBayes with the email as spam.

If you decide to revert your correction, all of the above will be reverted as well (e.g., SpamBayes will be untrained etc).

How do I tell JunkMatcher how often it should recycle my log?

© Benjamin Han (email), Sourceforge.net. Last updated on Sunday, April 23, 2006