I, along with pretty much everyone I’ve talked to lately, have been up in arms over the AIT spam “filter.” So, I decided to send them an e-mail with an idea for a solution.

My idea (actually it’s Hotmail’s idea) was this: Simply give users an option to block specific e-mail addresses. If a user gets an e-mail he or she doesn’t want, he or she just adds the address (or simply everything after the @ symbol) to a “block list.” All further e-mails from that address do not even enter a person’s inbox.

The idea I just explained to you doesn’t stop the first instance of spam, but it guarantees stopping any further spam from that particular source. That’s the best solution anyone can hope for. Making an attempt at predicting spam is foolish and a waste of our money and AIT’s time.

Now, I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of response I would get from AIT. But, much to my surprise, I had a response within the hour. I was impressed with the fact that AIT seems to be doing their best to fix the problems. We all already know that AIT is making some changes (as of Monday) to the spam “filter,” but they’re also already testing the idea above for the next release of Webmail.

So, before you scream a bunch of four-letter words at them and act like a 12-year-old, let them know what your problem or concern is. I’d be willing to bet they’ll get back to you with a response (and a solution) before you can say, “I’ll let Hormel tell me what spam is, not you!”

Eric Hoelmer

Senior

Electrical Engineering