Make reporting spam easier

[Mbuna]

Howdy,

I wasn't sure where to post this, and a quick search didn't find anything similar to this.

I'd really like to see the "Report spam" process streamlined. It often takes 30 seconds to a minute to report a spam message. For someone like me, who forwards 15-20 emails a day this becomes quite tedious.

For a long time I simply stopped forwarding them because I didn't want to take 15 - 20 minutes to report them each individually. I think this substantially lowers the number of reports you get, and consequently allows more spam through your filters.

NOTE: I already pay for filtering, what I'm forwarding is email that makes it through SpamCop's filtering.

Ideally I'd like to see this become more like the "Held Email" screen. Show me all of the email that is in my reporting queue at once. Then let me report them all at once.

I'd like to see the listing look like this:

Hours Old - Sendor - Subject

..........spamvertised URL1

..........spamvertised URL2

Hours Old - Sendor - Subject

..........spamvertised URL1

..........spamvertised URL2

EX:

2 Hours - Jack Hass (jackhass123[at]aol.com) - Buy Viagra Dirt Cheap!

..........http://buyviagra.com

..........http://dirtcheapdrugs.com

4 Hours - Carlos (asdfa23[at]aol.com) - Wanna quit your job?

..........http://workfromhome.com

(note I used .......... to preserve the spacing I wanted).

Give me a check box by each and let me choose which to report, or a "check all" option to choose them all.

Then let me click on "report" and report them all at once.

Anyone else like to see something like this?

[Miss Betsy]

I think it is a better idea than Quick Reporting.

Miss Betsy

[Mbuna]

Is there any formal enhancement request process at SpamCop?

[nursemike]

i agree 100! some mornings when i show 20 - 30 spam messages, i end up deleting them all rather then reporting them and having to spend an hour or more clicking on the reporting link and confirming each one. i am careful when i first send the spam messages to SpamCop.net that they are spam. anything to speed up the process would be much appreciated by me!

sorry about the typing. I broke my hand and am typing with just one hand.

mike

[Wazoo]

Is there any formal enhancement request process at SpamCop?

Perhaps see my last in the Forum Configuration Topic over in the Lounge. I've not heard a thing on that e-mail sent "to everybody" yet.

[StevenUnderwood]

The only problem I could see with this is that the confirmations are not supposed to be whether the message is actually spam or not, but rather to confirm where the reports are going makes sense (i.e. you are not reporting your own ISP).

To protect against that the system would need to parse the message and include those reults on the "quick view"

Hours Old - Sendor - Subject...reports to be sent to

..........spamvertised URL1.......reports to be sent to

..........spamvertised URL2.......reports to be sent to

Hours Old - Sendor - Subject...reports to be sent to

..........spamvertised URL1.......reports to be sent to

..........spamvertised URL2.......reports to be sent to

And since the parser sometimes gets different answers at different times (something I wish would be addressed, refreshing parses to get a correct answer is NOT right) those results should probably be stored and used to actually sent the reports, rather than reparsing at the time of sending. That brings in it's own set of problems, including a complete rewrite of the process, storage, and system load.

This being said, I would probably continue to use the full details, as I like to see why the parser makes it's decisions.

[Wazoo]

sorry about the typing. I broke my hand and am typing with just one hand.

I was wondering what happened there .. it took me like a half-hour to read your post <g>

[jknacnud]

I agree with this request. I am a hosting provider and use the SpamCop Black List and handle spam for hundreds of users. I could easily be sending hundreds of uncaught spam to SpamCop. However, if I were to do that I would be spending ALL DAY literally just sitting in front of the SpamCop window waiting for one message to be processed at a time. I do not have that kind of time, nor would I choose to do it if I did have the kind of time. I have been a SpamCop member and user for a couple years now and have streamlined my own process pretty well. I can take a bunch of spam and get it to SpamCop quickly. But once here at SpamCop it take me at least 30 minutes if not more to get through it all. This has to change.

I people like the one listed above still like the details, great, have the option to still see the details. I admit that I like the option of seeing the details, but not for all 50 spams per day! I only care so much. Just give me the basic info I need to see on a screen that has all the spam and a button that says "Nuke'em All" and then I can get onto other urgent things in my life.

By the way, I am actually very grateful to SpamCop for the services provided. Why else would I take the time to come and write. Why else would I be a paying member.

Thanks,

Jonathan Duncan

[turetzsr]

...Don't sweat it too much ... just do what you have the time (and the inclination) to do. Think of the community of spamcop reporters as a team -- we all contribute towards the goal of building the blocklist; each member's contributions help the team but a single report from a single member is not likely to be critical to our success.

[jknacnud]

...Don't sweat it too much ... just do what you have the time (and the inclination) to do.

25680[/snapback]

That is part of the problem, due to the time it takes I have lost the inclination.

Is the SpamCop reporting tool being worked on at all? The only changes that I have seen made to it over the past couple years have been visual. I have not seen any added functionality or push toward greater efficiency. Are changes like this in the works? I want to contribute more but with the current process I just do not have the time. Sure I could take a handful of random e-mail messages per day and process them, but I do not see that adding a mere fraction of what I get to the SpamCop list is making much of a dent.

Thanks,

[turetzsr]

That is part of the problem, due to the time it takes I have lost the inclination.

29101[/snapback]

...Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood your complaint -- I thought you were concerned about the length of time it takes to report all 15-20 spams per day as opposed to it taking 30 minutes to report each (but, then again, I don't userstand why it's taking you 30 minutes to report each spam -- it only takes me what I'd SWAG at about 1-3, on average).

Is the SpamCop reporting tool being worked on at all?

<snip>

29101[/snapback]

...Well, the interface you see is, from what I understand, only a tiny proportion of the code in the SpamCop tool. Julian must keep ahead of all the spammer tricks, which I'd imagine takes the largest proportion of the time he spends on the tool.

Sure I could take a handful of random e-mail messages per day and process them, but I do not see that adding a mere fraction of what I get to the SpamCop list is making much of a dent.

29101[/snapback]

...Please do exactly that, for whatever number of minutes a day you care to spend, whenver you feel you can spare the time. Every little bit each of us does to add to the data store is a positive. Thanks!

[jknacnud]

...Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood your complaint -- I thought you were concerned about the length of time it takes to report all 15-20 spams per day as opposed to it taking 30 minutes to report each (but, then again, I don't userstand why it's taking you 30 minutes to report each spam -- it only takes me what I'd SWAG at about 1-3, on average)....Well, the interface you see is, from what I understand, only a tiny proportion of the code in the SpamCop tool.  Julian must keep ahead of all the spammer tricks, which I'd imagine takes the largest proportion of the time he spends on the tool....Please do exactly that, for whatever number of minutes a day you care to spend, whenver you feel you can spare the time.  Every little bit each of us does to add to the data store is a positive.  Thanks!

29105[/snapback]

Actually, what I initiall said was:

I can take a bunch of spam and get it to SpamCop quickly.  But once here at SpamCop it take me at least 30 minutes if not more to get through it all.  This has to change.

23034[/snapback]

I can understand that when every SpamCop user submitted a couple of messages a day that it adds up to a lot of spam reported every day.

However, what if each SpamCop user was able to quickly report ALL of the spam they get each day. Would that be helpful at all? Or is just a couple a day per SpamCop user more than adequate for the purpose of keeping our Inboxes less spammy?

[StevenUnderwood]

However, what if each SpamCop user was able to quickly report ALL of the spam they get each day.  Would that be helpful at all?  Or is just a couple a day per SpamCop user more than adequate for the purpose of keeping our Inboxes less spammy?

29122[/snapback]

We have been told that fewer, more acurate reports are more important, especially for reports sent to ISP's, so that spamcop reports do not become irrelevant.

You are supposed to be using that confirmation screen to confirm that you agree with the parse about where the source is and where your reports are going and then for you to send your reports. At the very least, you should be confirming that the parser is not mistakenly reporting to your ISP, which does happen.

If you have a clean reporting record, you can request quick reporting from the deputies, but that requires email submission or a spamcop email account. Configuring all of your mailhosts is also STRONGLY reccomended as it limits the possibility of reporting your own ISP. The web page submission is always full reporting. Quick reporting also only reports the source of the message and not any parts of the body (web links) of the message.

[dle]

I'd just like to express my support of the proposed user interface change, even if it might not be put in reality soon due to scarce programming time.

In my experience, the spamvertized websites or admin addresses mean nothing to me, so I just accept the proposals every time. "Innocent Bystander" sites must be filtered automatically via a kind of whitelist, once it is clear, they are. The normal user cannot recogize them anyway in the vast majority of cases. That means, that this visual checking can be cancelled right away. The alternative would be, to be able to choose to not report any spamvertized website at all, which would clearly make visual checking obsolete too.

Now, that hopefully every spamcop user gave the information of his email account data, the possibility of reporting my own provider is much more reliably prevented automatically than by visual checking.

Even if there is the possibility to use quick reporting, there are still a lot of "normal" spamcop contributors like me out there, so that a streamlining of the confirmation interface would make sense.

A table with sender, subject, a checkbox for "submit report" and a link "open full report in new window" in each line would be my favorite thing.

At the bottom a "submit all checked messages and delete the rest" button would make it complete.