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Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

This is why gmail has a big fat "REPORT SPAM" button. Shenanigans like this are SPAM, and should be reported accordingly.

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Learning to stop worrying about messing up people's ability to deliver email and just liberally hammer the "REPORT SPAM" button for any email I didn't want to see anymore improved my email experience substantially. So much faster than messing with filters.

I also tell Twitter that every ad they show me is offensive. Because they are.

The problem with this is it's easy to start getting legitimate marketing emails that you signed up for filed as spam, because they look similar to the marketing emails that you've been reporting. For example, for a while SpamAssassin decided that every email from the PlayStation store (even receipt emails) was spam, primarily because they look similar to other emails I've marked.

Even worse - these filters appear to be global and I've spent a good amount of time trying to un-train some lazy person's "report this (entirely legitimate) email as spam".

Yes, I am aware this is a fool's errand.

Agreed - I've recently had a bunch of Amazon transactional emails get spam-filtered by Google, and I've never marked them as such.

Or ones from my bank that include a lovely advertisement at the bottom... But you know what, I just let them stay in my spam folder because they are spam (and important emails usually don't have advertisements attached).

Example that tripped up bogofilter:

    Show them the love.Whether it's candy,flowers, or something extra special, shop through the Earn
    More Mall® Site and watch your Bonus Rewards Currency add up.
    
    Got the winter time blues? Pack your bags and plan your escape - your rewards can lead you to a
    world of travel. Search from a wide variety of hotel, cruise or vacation packages.             
    
    This limited-time offer is available July 1, 2016 through September 30, 2016.
    
    Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic gift cards have no expiration or maintenance fees, and can be
    used at the following Gap Inc. brand stores and websites: Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and
    Athleta. Limit 5 gift cards redeemable per online transaction. Gift cards are redeemable for
    merchandise only, cannot be replaced if lost or stolen, and may not be redeemed with certain
    promotional offers. Restricted to use in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.

That's strange. Specifically I have marked all of Sony/Playstation's marketing crap "spam" in Gmail, and I marked only one of my PS Store email as "not spam" and never had a problem since.

Gmail is most likely a combination of global and local filters, and most people probably consider the PS Store emails as not spam. I'm not using Gmail, I'm using FastMail, so I'm using a local SpamAssassin filter (once you mark enough emails it flips from the global to the local filter). SpamAssassin uses some global data (e.g. URI blacklists and whatnot), but AFAIK the bayesian classification for my incoming email is purely based on my local training.

The email is just a symptom of the actual problem - tracking. Rather than hit the report spam button, I'd recommend installing a browser add-on that limits tracking.

Reporting it as spam impacts their entire operation. Disabling tracking only helps yourself.

But does it? No matter how many times I click "Report Spam" Google is not going to wholesale block LinkedIn's E-mail operation. At least those E-mails will start showing up in my own spam folder, but that's hardly affecting "their entire operation".

This is like refraining from voting in an election because "my vote won't matter." If enough people "Report Spam" then even LinkedIn's email operation will start to be impacted.

LinkedIn may be a special case, and then Google may be a special case too. But it will definitely help for all the other countless sites that are not LinkedIn.

You're right. People should do both.

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