[Az-Geocaching] bulk mail

[Bill]

Hotmail has a function in their bulk mail filter specifically to handle mailing lists.  You can
enter the mailing list info, and then it quits going to junk mail.  The problem with mailing
lists is that the "to" address in the arriving email is not YOUR address, so it gets identified
as junk.  Forwarded messages can also have this problem.  I have several friends that forward
messages to me, along with a bunch of other people.  The polite way to do this (or anytime you
send a message to a whole bunch of people) is to send it to yourself and BCC it to everyone
else.  That way you aren't broadcasting everyone's email address to the whole group.  Here
again, the junk mail filters may see the message coming to me but addressed to someone else and
mistakenly identify it as spam.

The robots that sort the mail for junk also look for odities in the sender's address.  I know
that if my students choose an email address with too many underscores in it, it will show up in
my junk mail.  They also look for unusual characters, so the square brackets that appear in the
subject line of the [Az-Geocaching] message may also trigger the spam filter.

The fact is, I have been searching for a good, reliable spam filter.  No luck so far.  It seems
like I can delete the spam myself more quickly than I can check my junk file to make sure I'm
not missing something important.  If I have to look through the junk anyway, what have I
gained?  I have found a really good pop-up filtering program, if anyone is interested.

By the way, I have just finished shepherding about 25 absolute computer beginners through the
process of signing up for a Hotmail address.  Many of these people can't even really type.
(Hand raised... "Where's the 'E'?  OK, I found it.)  I need to rest now.

Bill in Willcox