[Resolved] Past Reports page is not getting updated

[Vanguard]

When looking under the Past Reports tab, the last report shown as submitted is dated back on May 12. Yet I've submitted reports once, or more, per day since then. Why isn't this list getting updated? I went there because I wanted to check on an IP address for a just submitted report but that list is too old.

[Merlyn]

Did you leave the report ID box empty and just click View recent reports?

[Wazoo]

I hate it when you say "I've submitted reports once, or more, per day ...." because simply "submitting" doesn't accomplish much. As that's the word you've chosen to use, then the response would be that you've not "sent" any reports/complaints on their way since May 12th ....

[Vanguard]

When looking under the Past Reports tab, the last report shown as submitted is dated back on May 12.  Yet I've submitted reports once, or more, per day since then.  Why isn't this list getting updated?  I went there because I wanted to check on an IP address for a just submitted report but that list is too old.

28281[/snapback]

Yep. I didn't remember the report ID and so I just clicked on the link to view recent reports. The most "recent" report listed is over 8 days ago.

[Vanguard]

I hate it when you say "I've submitted reports once, or more, per day ...." because simply "submitting" doesn't accomplish much.  As that's the word you've chosen to use, then the response would be that you've not "sent" any reports/complaints on their way since May 12th ....

28284[/snapback]

When I send the attached spam via e-mail, I'm "requesting to submit" the report (as obviously I cannot force SpamCop to do anything regarding my e-mail sent to them). When I get the reply e-mail with the link, click on it, and okay that report, I'm "completing the submit". "Sent" could simply be that I sent them the attached spam in an e-mail which was the first step for "requesting to submit", so "sent" isn't a complete and accurate term, either. I really didn't want to bother saying that I "requested a submit and then completed the submission", and instead used "submit" to refer to the entire process.

I have sent spam as attachments to SpamCop. SpamCop then sent me a reply e-mail with the link to their parser web form. I then completed that submission so the report would get filed and SpamCop's version of the spam reports get sent to the selected recipients. So what do YOU call that entire process without having to use an long descriptive paragraph? And why would "sent" be any better than "submit"? Sent just means I sent the spam to SpamCop. "Submit" sounds like something further in the process than just "sent". "Send" doesn't differentiate between me first sending the spam to SpamCop or when I click the "Send" button in their web form.

If you look at the web form after clicking on the reply e-mail from SpamCop (with a Subject of "SpamCop has accepted 1 email for processing") which shows the parsing, look at the HTML on that page. You will see the button titled "Send spam Report(s) Now" is:

<input type="submit" value="Send spam Report(s) Now">

So saying that I submitted the spam report is accurate since that is what I did by using that control in that web form. The text for the input control can be anything, even "File this report and send copies of it to the selected recipients" but that doesn't change that the action taken was a submit.

So now that we've wasted time arguing over terminology, why isn't my Past Reports list getting updated for spam reports from the last week that have been submitted, sent, filed, recorded, or whatever you want to call it? Rather than this forum, is there a more appropriate contact that I should notify regarding this problem?

[Wazoo]

If there had not been so many folks posting with "I submitted my spam, what else do I need to do" I'd go along with your bit of attitude. Unfortunately, too many folks have, you used the words, didn't make the leap from "here's a Tracking URL of a spam that I submitted that isn't showing up in my past reports" which would have been a starting point. You can always go upstream, Forum FAQ has a Contact Us link or two, I even added a link to fire up a newsreader to hit the newsgroups, many 'other' contact points are available .. only a couple of them lead to someone with the power to 'look' at anything with no data provided. You're not the only one frustrated around these parts.

That said, a general query sent upstream ...

[Vanguard]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if posting here (on *how* to report) was an appropriate place to report problems with the service. So I'll go hunting for an "upstream" contact to report the issue. Thanks anyway.

[Wazoo]

Ellen's answer to my query;

> Is it possible that the Report History function is

> having a glitch?

I don't think so -- why do you ask?

Some user just wrote asking that question but it appears that he opened up a

second reporting account on 5/11 and all his reported spams are sitting in

that report history not his previous account which only shows reported spams

thru 5/11.

Ellen

SpamCop

Problem solved?

[Vanguard]

I got a reply from Ellen (via e-mail) and from SpamCop Admin (also via e-mail). The problem was from several contributing factors:

- The cookie login takes me into whichever account was last used. I typically login under account #1 and the cookie relogs me back into that account when I click on the link in the "accept" SpamPal reply after sending the spam report to SpamCop.

- The spam reported from Outlook Express used the submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail address for my account #2. The Past Reports list records spam based to which SpamCop the report got sent (by the submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail address), not according to account you log under to complete the submission. So I sent to my submit e-mail address for account #2 but was logging on under account #1 to complete the submission. If I had logged out and back in under account #2 then I would've seen my recent reports submitted to account #2.

- To further exascerbate the problem, I had an old and defunct SpamCop account #1 registered for my personal e-mail address. However, the account under which I was logging under and the one for the submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail address to which I was sending spam report was for a newer account. At some point, I must've abandoned my old account and had to create a new one. The help tells users to create a new SpamCop account rather than try to get the admins to reset the password, so maybe that is what happened. Both the old and new accounts had the same e-mail address listed but had different submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail addresses for reporting spam. Luckily I was using the submit e-mail address for my newest SpamCop account with that same registered e-mail address.

I thought I would need a separate SpamCop account for each e-mail address but that is not correct. My mistake was thinking the "accept" replies from SpamCop after sending them a spam report would get sent to the e-mail address specified in my Preferences setting. Nope, those "accept" e-mails get sent back to whatever e-mail address sent the spam report in the first place. I was thinking that I would need multiple SpamCop accounts to ensure those "accept" messages got sent back to the proper e-mail account that was managed by the same e-mail client that handles the account from which the spam got reported. I use Outlook for one group of my e-mail accounts (personal and work) and I use Outlook Express for another group of my e-mail accounts (forums and newsgroups). Because the "accept" reply goes back to whatever e-mail address was used to send that report, it will show up in the appropriate e-mail client.

I also wasn't used to performing tasks which should be going through account without actually being logged in under that account. That is, when you send a spam report to SpamCop to your account #2, you can be logged in under your account #1, or anyone's account, or not even logged in to complete the submission. I wasn't used to this lack of security. Apparently this has not yet been a security issue.

As an aside to this discussion, I remember reading in the registration e-mail or in the help that I should keep private my submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail address to which I send spam reports. Presumably anyone could send messages to that e-mail address and potentially cause problems or deliberate abuse. Although I can use one SpamCop account to send spam reports from multiple e-mail accounts of mine, so can anyone else. I would think for security that users would be required to list from e-mail addresses their account will accept spam reports. When the user adds an e-mail address to their Preferences (which requires logging in), a confirmation e-mail gets sent back to complete the addition of that e-mail address. That way, anyone getting your submit.<id>[at]spamcop.net e-mail address cannot abuse or usurp it because the "accept" replies from SpamCop would still be getting sent back to the real user's authenticated account(s).

To summarize: Issue with Past Reports has been resolved and found to be the typical source of problems: user error (more colorful expression also apply).