Getting this dialog box prompted me to mention something that's been bugging me for a while now.


"You have sent a message in a conversation marked as spam. The message will not appear in your Sent Mail unless you mark it as not spam."

On several occasions I've had a incoming message marked as spam that was clearly a response to a non-spam message I'd already seen. Once I marked the suspect message as "not spam" Gmail intelligently grouped it with the others to form a complete "conversation."

But I have to wonder why that isn't given higher precedence when deciding if a new message is spam? I mean, if I can tell it's part of a non-spam conversation, and Gmail can tell too, why doesn't it err on the side of including it?

Posted by jzawodn at February 28, 2007 05:13 PM

Reader Comments
# Luis Alberto Barandiaran said:

One other thing that I would love to see is more grouping in the spam folder. I always check it just in case there's a false positive (I get around 3 per month), so wading through tons of spam messages can get frustrating (at best). In many cases, the spammer uses different subjects, or senders to try to fool the spam filter, but usually the same body. It would be great if those messages were grouped under just one "conversation"...

on February 28, 2007 08:12 PM
# Richard Curry said:

I had started to freak out when I couldn't find my Spamalot tickets that were sent to me in an email.. Guess where they were, Spam Filter, I'm glad it doesn't auto delete.

on February 28, 2007 10:35 PM
# Jim Turner said:

You could use Yahoo mail I suppose it may cure the problem. ;)

on March 1, 2007 06:52 AM
# Mike said:

Nice positioning of the error pic. I didn't go as far to click it but... I was just in my GMail account and clicked my bookmark to get here. Read the error... WTF? I didn't even send any mail! :P

on March 1, 2007 09:49 AM
# Scott said:

I noticed a potential problem with the way that they have this set up.

I heard that there was some bug going around a while back that caused problems for Yahoo mail users...
http://news.com.com/Worm+wriggles+through+Yahoo+mail+flaw/2100-7349_3-6082934.html?tag=nefd.top
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=1079

So... thinking along the same lines... if Gmail was infected, do you mean to tell me that my account might send a spam email, marked as spam but if the bug was smart enough to automatically "ok" the spam warning, I'd have no clue that my email address was being used to send spam out as there would be no record in the outbound/send email folder?

If so, this would be a little worrisome.

on March 1, 2007 12:54 PM
# hongcgi said:

Try use other mail.

on March 1, 2007 10:28 PM
# Snel geld lenen said:

I've noticed this as well, do you think yahoo mail is better?

on August 6, 2007 06:56 AM
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. My current, past, or previous employers are not responsible for what I write here, the comments left by others, or the photos I may share. If you have questions, please contact me. Also, I am not a journalist or reporter. Don't "pitch" me.

 

Privacy: I do not share or publish the email addresses or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent. However, I do reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic, or otherwise unsuitable based on my comment policy. In a few cases, I may leave spammy comments but remove any URLs they contain.