One mans spam filter is anthers ham filter

This presents a bit of a problem in ones anti spam software implementation. The title really says it all - One mans spam is another mans ham. If you are more focused on blocking spam from your own individual email inbox, then this is not of much concern. Spam filter administrators must deal with this issue though.

Any office do-gooder might decree that anything containing the word "X Y or Z" should be blocked as spam. It's quite easy to come up with some simple examples that throw a real monkey wrench into such simplistic solutions.

Typically, the problem of 'is it a ham or a spam' depends on the recipient. What is 'unsolicited' depends on the recipients outlook. Many times, a news letter is unwittingly subscribed to - interesting at first, but bothersome after a while. After all attempts to unsubscribe fail, it is fair to re-designate these emails as spam. These issues are better handled on the client side rather than the server side, since there might be other recipients who continue to appreciate the subscription. Though any decent anti spam software can allow for rules pertaining to the recipient, an administrator has better things to do.

Typically, we find professional trade journals are an issue here. Every industry has it's trade e-zine or news letters. An engineer might find them most valuable, while the company accountant might have little use for them, and consider them spam. Likewise, and not to single out accountants, but I'm sure they have some fascinating e-zine trade journals too. Ones that an engineer would consider spam.

To be sure, the 'one mans spam is another mans ham' principal helps to complicate the anti spam software issue. Striking the fine line balance between blocking spam and allowing ham sometimes takes on an individual need, and client side filtering needs to be employed.