Sorry I’ve Been A Bit Absent
March 15th, 2010 | 
Author: Hi Gang!
Sorry I’ve been a bit absent the past week or so. I’ve been teaching another writer’s workshop…this one at Savvyauthors.com (a place any authors who are hanging out here should definitely check out for their excellent line-up of workshops.) The workshop is finished up now and I am kind of back on top of things again.
Odd how one thing (like teaching a workshop) can impact on your schedule and keep you from getting things done that you normally do.
I also had a bit of an email mishap weekend before this last one. I was using a software that is designed as kind of an add on to Outlook. The software is supposed to organize your email in handy ways so that you can deal more effectively with it. Since I get thousands of emails a day (largely spam) this seemed like a good idea. The problem was that the software got slower and slower and slower as the email filtered in…till eventually Outlook was practically worthless. Without really considering what I was doing and the ramifications I uninstalled the plug-in…which dumped all of that previously sorted email back into my inbox…all 60,000 pieces of spam, newsletters, submissions, newsgroup posts…everything. It took the entire weekend to get that mess sorted out and a new spam solution and filtering system for Outlook installed. The good news is that we have a new spam filter and a new email system and both seem to be working well. My inbox has not been so tidy in YEARS!
I’m using MailWasherPro for spam filtering…and I’m liking it…though it works differently than other spam software I have used. Most spam filtering software that I’ve used you download the email to your computer and the spam filter moves it to a spam folder. You can delete the contents of the spam folder. MailWasherPro is cool it connects to your mail servers…then it color codes your mail…green for likely good mail and red for spam email. A few things that it can’t identify as good or bad it leaves for you to mark (and it learns from your marking.) Once you’ve marked the spam you click the process mail button and it deletes the spam without it ever getting to your computer. Then you can download the good stuff which is still on the server using your normal email software. It is pretty slick. It’s currently catching about 3000 spam messages a day…that are not getting onto my computer…so I am happy about that.
I hope to have some more prize winners in the next day or two…as soon as I have a chance to update the spreadsheet and draw them. 
I will also be updating the website with the last round of winners. The email problem caught me in the middle of that task.
Posted in Sorry I've Been Absent
That sounds pretty nifty. I find if I don’t check after 2 days my inbox is inundated and so is my spam box which I have to check anyway. Some good messages get into my spam folder and vise versa. So I groan and trudge on. *smile*
Hi Armenia,
That’s the way it is for me too. I’ve always had to go through the spam to make sure nothing good got in there by mistake. Usually 1 or 2 things per thousand or so emails would be in the spam folder by mistake. With MailWasherPro it will organize things from most likely to be good to most likely to be spam which makes sorting easier. The good stuff is at the top…the iffier stuff is toward the bottom. The stuff it identifies as spam almost always is. I think I had one piece wrongly identified as spam three days ago…of course this is after a week or so of training the program. There were more misses right at first.
Yes, I groan and trudge on too…but I resent that spammers used to cost me about two hours a day on average…sorting out their junk. That’s cut way down with the set-up I have now. I maybe spend 30 or 40 minutes a day sorting. That’s a lot less…which is a good thing.
Sounds like you’ve been having a rough couple of weeks hopefully it will get better. I get so much junk in my spam folder and I hate having to go through it but sometimes I get some emails I need in it so I try to check it everyday.
I get a lot of spam, too.
I can’t imagine having to sort through all that email. Of course I have an old computer that’s acting like it’s going to die on me any day now. I’ve spent the last few days going through and backing up all my files. If I had to go through any more email, it would just have to go unanswered because I’d never get anything else done.
Wow, I wouldn’t know how to manage if I received a thousand emails daily.
Hey we all get busy from time to time, so how can we help but to understand.
Even with spam filters there’s lots and lots of it daily and it’s more than annoying!!
WOW I wish I could take one of your classes but i don’t live near you.
We don’t have a lot of writer classes around here and I took every writing class or if the class had something to do with books, authors I took it. I have BS in humans minds and all I wanted to do is write
Heidi
How fun to do a workshop. I’d love to go to one. Anyways, have a great day.
I need to check MailWasherPro. Though I don’t have a huge spam issue, there are times I get a lot.
I’ve been absent too lately. Life got in the way. So don’t feel bad. Congrats though on the new spam filter. I hate spam and anything that gets rid of it is a good thing.
Sounds like a great program. I’d love to try it.
That sounds like a good spam filter. I think I need to check it out. I get hundreds of emails and that would help alot.
Gabrielle