Using SpamGuard
| Getting Started | Working With the Spam Mail Folder | Training the Filter |
Training the SpamGuard Filter
As you and others use SpamGuard, it learns what people consider to be spam (and just as importantly what you don’t consider spam). From your actions, it can accurately filter each message into the appropriate folder.
Training the SpamGuard filter involves:
Clicking the Spam button to report messages delivered to your Inbox (or one of your personal folders) as spam.
This action moves the message to the Spam folder and trains the filter to recognize messages of this type as spam in the future.
Clicking the Not Spam button to report messages in your Spam folder that aren’t spam.
This action moves the messages out of the Spam folder and into your Inbox, and it trains the filter to recognize messages of this type as "good mail" in the future.
As you reclassify messages as spam or not spam, the general SpamGuard filter gets additional information about the spam that Yahoo! Mail users receive.
(More Details)
Here’s How
To mark email as spam in your Inbox without opening any messages (recommended by Yahoo!), check the box to the left of the one or more messages, then click the Spam button.
Tip: You can identify and remove spam in any of your personal folders in the same way.
Yahoo! Mail moves the message to the Spam folder.
If you open a spam message by mistake, you can still mark it as spam by clicking the Spam button above the message.
To mark a message as not spam, open it from the Spam folder, then click the Not Spam button.
Yahoo! Mail moves the message to your Inbox, and you’ve helped train SpamGuard to recognize that messages of this type aren’t spam.
What’s Next: "Unspamming" Your Friends
If you mistakenly mark a message as spam, go to the Spam folder, open the message, and then click the Not Spam button.
Though this doesn’t guarantee that messages from this email address won’t be delivered to your Spam folder, you’ll be helping the filter to recognize the address as "good".
Words to Know
- Filter: a rule that Yahoo! Mail uses to direct an incoming message to a particular folder.
- Folder: a container that holds individual elements specific to the context; for example, email messages in Yahoo! Mail.
- Personal folder: a mail folder that you create and use to organize your email messages.
- Spam: unsolicited email on the Internet; also called "junk mail".
- Spam folder: a permanent folder containing messages that you or Spamguard consider spam.