Sonic.net launches anti-spam feature. Activate it at:
https://sonic.sonic.net/membertools/spamcan/
The Internet has become very annoying. Spam, pop-ups, animated banners and intermittent disconnections all detract from the usefulness of the Internet.
My name is Dane Jasper, and I am the CEO and co-founder of Sonic.net. In the ten years that I have been using the Internet, we have seen the advent and massive proliferation of spam, animated banners, flash ads, and pop-up ads.
We have each become very good at ignoring all of these distractions. We delete unwanted emails (some of them obscene, others just annoying), we chase pop-ups down with our mouse to close them, and we attempt to read websites obscured by banner ads.
Sonic.net is today launching a multi-part effort to make the Internet less annoying for our customers.
-- SpamAssassin -- https://sonic.sonic.net/membertools/spamcan/
Elimination of spam is our primary goal. About 75% of the email Sonic.net processes is spam, and this is certainly an annoyance when it makes it into your in-box.
Currently, Sonic.net handles about a million emails per day, of which we reject more than half as spam. Most of these are from illegitimate senders or are from sites listed on major blacklists, and are easily identified and rejected.
Despite our efforts, many slip through, and we estimate that today more than half of the email our customers receive in their in-box is spam. While this is far better than the amount we would have in the absence of any other checking, we knew we could do better.
To combat this, we have been busy integrating a new email analysis tool, SpamAssassin. When enabled, the SpamAssassin software "reads" email the same way that you do, top to bottom, and tallies characteristics that look like spam. Emails that look like spam to the software are moved to a holding area called a Graymail box and they never end up in your in-box.
On a nightly basis, you will receive a report, listing the subject and sender of each spam that SpamAssassin has identified and eliminated for you. >From time to time, SpamAssassin may incorrectly catch a message that you wish to have delivered; it might be a newsletter with lots of advertising included, or an email forwarded to you by a friend, which really looks very similar to spam.
This is the reason for Graymail. Your personal web-based Graymail box is a temporary holding area for messages that have a high likelihood of being spam. If you see a message subject or sender in your nightly report, that you do actually want to receive, you can view the Graymail folder on the web and deliver that message to your in-box. You can also white list that sender, which means they are listed as a friend, and SpamAssassin will not catch any future emails from them.
SpamAssassin blocks almost all of the spam, with a very tiny ratio of false positives for most users. Reviewing your Graymail is important when you first begin using SpamAssassin, and if you find any messages improperly captured, you can deliver and white list those senders. Messages in Graymail are deleted automatically after 7 days.
I think you will be very pleased with the lack of spam in your in-box, and I recommend you turn on SpamAssassin on your Sonic.net account now. It is an optional feature that we provide at no charge to our customers.
To activate SpamAssassin, visit:
https://sonic.sonic.net/membertools/spamcan/
Once turned on, you will immediately notice less spam in your in-box, and you will begin receiving nightly reports about captured spam. Inspect the list, and if it's all spam, there is no need to do anything - they will disappear in two weeks from your Graymail.
--
We hope that our efforts to make the Internet less annoying will make your use of Sonic.net more satisfying. If you have any suggestions for other ways we might improve your service, feel free to reply now and let us know.
--
Dane Jasper Sonic.net, Inc.
(707)522-1000
mailto:support@sonic.net http://www.sonic.net/
