We have recently implemented new spam filtering tools on our email server to keep your inbox as spam-free as possible. While we have been testing, you may have actually noticed an increase in the amount of spam that you have received due to the nature of our filters. But rest assured that we are now here to help you filter out all of the badness to keep your inboxes clean and happy.
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
All email is getting scanned as it comes into our server and the subject line will be prepended with either the string "{Spam?}" or "{Definitely Spam?}" if it is spam (the "Definitely" modifier comes in if the spam filter scores it so high that there is no chance that it is legitimate email) or "{Virus?}" if our virus scanner detects an email virus.
What this means is that you can edit your email program to scan for any of those strings and move that email into a junk mail folder as it arrives so you never have to see it. If you are feeling brave, you can have the email deleted immediately, but we recommend moving it to another folder so you can review it every once in a while in case a legitimate email comes through.
In Apple's Mail Program:
- Go to the "Mail" menu to "Preferences" and choose the "Rules" item at the top
- There you will want to "Add Rule" that will move find any message where the "Subject" "Begins with" "{Spam?}" (or "{Definitely Spam?}") and moves that mail to a junk mail folder
In Outlook Express:
- Go to the "Tools" menu, to "Message Rules" and the "Mail" submenu
- There you will be able to set up the conditions for filtering the spam (you will most likely want to add a rule "Where the Subject line contains specific words" and create a new rule for "{Spam?}" and "{Definitely Spam?}"
In Your Admin Panel:
This method is not recommended, because you will not be able to review your emails before deleting. However:
- Log into your Admin Panel
- Click on "Email Filtering"
- Click on "Add Filter"
- After [Subject] [That Contains], add "{Spam?}" (without the quotes)
- Click "Activate"
- Repeat for subject "{Definitely Spam?}"
Any email marked in that way will be discarded before it gets to your inbox.
WHAT HAPPENS IF A LEGITIMATE EMAIL GETS FLAGGED AS SPAM?
We hope that this doesn't happen, and the rules that we are using are fairly conservative, but false positives can happen. If this does happen, please let us know so we can poke around our rules to see what caused that email to be marked as spam. The best thing for you to do is to send a copy of the email message to support@fictco.com so we can look at it. If possible, please view all the email headers in your email program and then copy and paste those into the email you send us - that way we can see what was going on with our scanners.
In Apple's Mail program:
- Go to the message in question
- Click on the "View" menu and then go to "Message" and then select "Long Headers"
- Copy the entire email message into a new email and send it to support@fictco.com
In Outlook Express:
- Click on the message in question
- Hold down control and click on the message in the message list and go to the "Properties" item that comes up
- Click on the "details" tab and click on the "Message Source..." button
- Select the entire contents of that box, press Control-C to copy the message and then close those boxes, create a new message to support@fictco.com and paste in the contents of the message
There are more tips for fighting spam here.