[Bug 5195] New: SpamAssassin flags valid newsletter as spam

[bu...@bugzilla.spamassassin.org]

http://issues.apache.org/SpamAssassin/show_bug.cgi?id=5195

           Summary: SpamAssassin flags valid newsletter as spam
           Product: Spamassassin
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: Windows XP
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P3
         Component: spamassassin
        AssignedTo: dev@spamassassin.apache.org
        ReportedBy: bonnie@javalinas.com


I own a community coffee shop, and I have been sending a newsletter to my 
subscribers for almost three years.  I have over 2,300 subscribers, and this is 
the first time I have ever heard that my newsletter has been flagged as spam.  
I write it inside a table in a Microsoft Word Document and then copy and paste 
it into an Outlook Express email.  This month one of my subscribers reported to 
me that my newsletter was flagged as spam.  Your instructions tell me not to 
post messages, but the errors reported are EXTRA_MPART_TYPE; 
TVD_FW_GRAPHIC_ID1; BODY: TVD_FW_GRAPHIC_ID1; HTML_TAG_EXIST_TBODY; 
HTML_MESSAGE; SARE_GIF_ATTACH; PART_CID_STOCK; MY_CID_AND_CLOSING.  

I am concerned that many of my subscribers may not have received my newsletter 
at all if their options are set to delete spam rather than flagging it.  Would 
you please look into this problem that is causing valid mail to be flagged as 
spam?  Is there something simple I can do on my end to avoid this problem?  It 
is interesting to me that it references HTML since I do not use HTML when 
writing the newsletter.  

I work hard to stay in touch with my customers on a weekly basis, and I will 
greatly appreciate any help you can provide to resolve this problem. 

Bonnie Vining 
Javalina's Coffee & Friends 
Tucson, Arizona



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[Bug 5195] SpamAssassin flags valid newsletter as spam

[bu...@bugzilla.spamassassin.org]

http://issues.apache.org/SpamAssassin/show_bug.cgi?id=5195


sidney@sidney.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
         Resolution|                            |WORKSFORME




------- Additional Comments From sidney@sidney.com  2006-11-19 10:38 -------
I'm sorry to say that based on what you have described this is probably not a
bug in SpamAssassin, so I will close this bug report as WORKSFORME. If your
newsletter is faithfully reproducing the Word table including graphics, then it
must be going out as HTML, even if you aren't doing any explicit HTML coding. If
it were not HTML it would be plain text.

In any case, you would be better off asking on the spamassassin users mailing
list for help in understanding what about your newsletter process is triggering
SpamAssassin rules and what you can do differently to avoid the problem. I do
suggest that in asking a question there you make it very clear what you are
doing to ensure that your email is only being sent to people who want to receive
it, i.e., that the mail is not spam. The gold standard for that is confirmed
opt-in of subscriptions, which means that when people sign up (on-line) they
receive a confirmation email that they have to reply to before they are
subscribed. Looking at your web site it appears that there is no online
subscription at all and your newsletter goes to people who have signed up in
person at your coffee shop. That should be just as good, although I would
suggest that to help work around the effect of typos or other errors that all
new subscriptions still begin with a welcome email asking the subscriber to
reply to confirm the address.

Having said this, look for an email from me about your problem that I'm sending
separately from this bug report, as it does not have to do with SpamAssassin bugs.

Closing as WORKSFORME.




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