My body parts are just fine, I'm a happily married man, and there couldn't be that many deposed Nigerian dictators. But my E-mail seems to think differently, at least according to the spam—the dregs of online life—that I continue to get.
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Despite the growing torrent of junk messages, I'd resisted using a specialized program to filter unwanted E-mail. Learning a new program, plus training it to recognize what I consider spam, seemed like more work than just deleting, deleting, deleting. I've now changed my mind, having tried the latest version of Eudora, my E-mail program for the past decade or so. Its most recent major upgrade added an option that automatically cans the rubbish. SpamWatch comes as part of the $50 premium version of Eudora, which is also available in a couple of free versions (at eudora.com).
The fact that Eudora integrated the antispam option into the overall program overcame one barrier for me. I don't like add-on programs because they have too often caused problems on my PC in the past. I didn't want to take chances with E-mail, a lifeline to the outside world. That's also why I hesitate to try "challenge-response" services, which force senders to prove they are human and not spam software, before they let E-mail through. Those challenges are a sure way to stop junk but seem better suited to personal E-mail. I can't afford to annoy unfamiliar people who want to reach me, including readers and industry folks. And I'd rather they not have to resort to phone calls.
Four months after loading it up, SpamWatch is doing the job. It's getting more than 95 percent of the junk messages, though you do have to continually fine-tune the program. I also have to look in the folder where it sends items it deems spam for the occasional "false positive," an E-mail I actually want. But it's better than manually deleting all of those messages.
Now the bad news. Despite numerous efforts, including turning off SpamWatch, this latest version of Eudora suffers random crashes on my PC—the program unexpectedly closes. That's especially painful, because like many users, my E-mail program helps organize my work. It's a sort of "to do" list, and one that gets all screwed up after a crash.
So now I'm more open to competitors. I'll continue trying to stabilize Eudora but will be testing other E-mail options. I'll be looking for the one that helps screen out the rubbish and that doesn't trash me in the process.
