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Spam Costing An Hour A Day?
from the ouch dept
After just doing my once every few days scan of my spam filters to make sure nothing legitimate was caught, I realized that spam seems to be increasing at quite a rapid clip lately. However, my filtering system is working well enough that it's not a huge waste of time right now. A new study in the UK, though, has found that workers can spend up to an hour a day cleaning out their in-boxes. As bad a problem as spam is, I'm curious what these people are doing that it takes them so long to deal with their spam. It sounds like this "study", though, is simply asking business owners how much they thought their staff wasted on spam - so the one hour number is probably exaggerated.
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Unwanted e-mail does not neccessarily equal SPAM
I have to disagree with the use of the term SPAM in your post entitled "Spam Costing An Hour A Day?". The BBC's article nor the report never use the term Spam. Instead they choose to use the broader term junk e-mail because in fact the study refers to a variety of different "unwanted" messages including personal messages between employees, not just "spam". Sorry to be so semantic about this, but I think we need to be careful when we use the term spam because by definition it generally refers to unsolicited commercial e-mail, not personal messages.
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Re: Unwanted e-mail does not neccessarily equal SP
Actually, we've discussed this before, and the common definition of spam is considered to be "any email I don't want" - even if it's from friends, families, or associates. Most people don't really distinguish. If it's email they don't want, they call it spam.
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Re: Unwanted e-mail does not neccessarily equal SP
Agreed about the common definition as you suggest, but what I'm concerened about is when the legal definition gets clouded because of what society regards as the "common" definition.
When soon to be ex-spouses start filing lawsuits against each other for spamming under federal spam laws it will be a dark day. ;)
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Re: Unwanted e-mail does not neccessarily equal SP
When soon to be ex-spouses start filing lawsuits against each other for spamming under federal spam laws it will be a dark day. ;)
Ha! I agree... but it's also why I think any legal definition of spam is going to run into problems.
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Re: Unwanted e-mail does not neccessarily equal SP
Spam is not semantics: it is all uninvited advertising and mischief sent to your mailbox.
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An Hour For Spam? You must be reading it all...
If you install a good anti-spam program that captures, previews, and classifies your emails before downloading, you could skim through hundreds of messages (or garbage) in seconds. If you want to read the fine messages about Viagra and Nigerian schemes, it could very well take hours. Maybe you're bored with work, so you embrace a diversion...
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Re: An Hour For Spam? You must be reading it all..
I have a good spam-catching program but it only does so much. Lately a good 50-plus emails a day have been slipping through, ahead of the filters, meaning I have to wade through it all. More importantly, I check email during the day with mail2web, which doesn't have filtering, which means I go scan-check-scan-check and delete messages twice an hour, all day long. An hour a day sounds exaggerated but not impossible.
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I fixed my spam problem...
...and gained an extra 3 hours a day.
I stopped reading e-mail.
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online chess
Oh, yeah!
And I'd rather be playing chess online on online chess !
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