Webmail Spam Filters...

[Duggeh]

Over the last several years previous committees of a society of which I am a member have managed to run up an impressive list of more than 10,000 individual spam filters on the societies webmail account, blocking individual spammers instead of as is the sensible way, just filtering for the {Spam?} tag. The processing through this list lends a certain.. lagginess.. to the webmail experience.

The webmail interface only lets you delete these filters one at a time, and because of the page load times caused by the size of the list, it takes at least 20 seconds for each deletion. That works out at like 50 years to remove them all.

Naturally, I contacted ITS about this and asked them to reset or delete the spam filters list. I have been told however, that such an action lies beyond their powers.

That to me sound, frankly, at least surprising, in general unacceptable and at most downright bullshit. What would be the difficulty if they've got all the dials and buttons at their end?

I don't suppose that anyone might have an alternative solution, the option of sitting for a whole day developing RSI deleting these things is not open for consideration.

[Darkwind]

Not sure about a better option for deleting the filters but as I understand it, the inability to mess around with the contents of e-mail accounts means that they cannot get at any e-mails you have in your account and so have no ability to look in for malicious reasons (which I feel is good)

[orudge]

That to me sound, frankly, at least surprising, in general unacceptable and at most downright bullshit. What would be the difficulty if they've got all the dials and buttons at their end?

Due to the way Horde stores preference data and so on, it would be tricky, but not impossible, for somebody at ITS to sort things out. It's probably the kind of thing that they could do if they really wanted to, but they don't want to put the effort into it.

[DaftPunk]

In my experience ITS are lazy buggers, so my advice to you would be to try and speak to some computer geek who might be able to give you more help!

[theshadowhost]

change e-mail account.

[RandomMusings]

Try getting ITS to set up a forwarding option to a new e-mail client such as googlemail. This might help...

[Gubbins]

Try getting ITS to set up a forwarding option to a new e-mail client such as googlemail. This might help...

You can forward mail yourself by setting up a file in the root directory (top-level folder) of your account's filespace. Call the file ".forward" and, in the file, type the e-mail address you want to forward it to.

[househunter]

Forward your email to a Gmail account, I did this whilst at Uni without any consequence. Better interface and pretty much unlimited space.

[Fawksie]

Hundreds of students forwarding all their University e-mail is what gets us blacklisted on Hotmail every time a mass-mail goes out. It's a foolish idea and it has no relevance to Duggeh's problem.

[theshadowhost]

if webmail wasn't so slow and had a better user interface people would be forwarding to it rather than away from it.

[Duggeh]

A better user interface with tickboxes would be fine. You can choose select all for emails themselves, then untick certain ones. Yet this absolutely base functionality is lacking from the filters page.

I hold no hope of the situation changing however. For so many things the university line is "if it isn't broke, don't fix it, and if its slow, stupid, pointless, lacking, faulty, or easily improved, then leave it until it does break."

[househunter]

It would be a good idea for people to stop using Hotmail anyway, especially students. A girl handed me her CV today that had her email listed as something like cutie-pie-xxx@hotmail.com.

Best break the habit now as some employers wont take a CV seriously if it's from a Hotmail address.

[theshadowhost]

yeah that's one reason i got gmail early. i got a sensible one that uses my name.

[What?]

It would be a good idea for people to stop using Hotmail anyway, especially students. A girl handed me her CV today that had her email listed as something like cutie-pie-xxx@hotmail.com.

Best break the habit now as some employers wont take a CV seriously if it's from a Hotmail address.

Or get a sensible Hotmail address. I snapped up my name@hotmail.co.uk as soon as they came out.

[theshadowhost]

True, but it's still kinda the myspace to facebook.

[What?]

or, heaven forbid, the bebo of this world.

[Duggeh]

I can feel exclusive because it's no longer possible to take out an email addy at talk21.com

[eagle]

Might it be an idea to launch a campaign to get the University to change webmail?
If enough people ask them to do it, perhaps they'll take notice.

[amac]

Hundreds of students forwarding all their University e-mail is what gets us blacklisted on Hotmail every time a mass-mail goes out. It's a foolish idea and it has no relevance to Duggeh's problem.

Yes, good. Blame the users.

1998 called and wants its email system back. The lag in time travel would explain some things though.

[Fawksie]

Hundreds of students forwarding all their University e-mail is what gets us blacklisted on Hotmail every time a mass-mail goes out. It's a foolish idea and it has no relevance to Duggeh's problem.

Yes, good. Blame the users.

Sorry, who or what else would you like me to blame? If 200 identical e-mails hit 200 Hotmail addresses within 30 seconds of each other, what do you think Hotmail's spam detection system does?