Manage Your Rules

The My Rules page holds the rules that apply to your mailbox. Some you create yourself. Others SpamFoo creates from your corrections, and some come from your administrators.

Open My Rules

1. Open the SpamFoo Dashboard. See Open Your Dashboard.
2. In the left menu, go to My Email > My Rules.

The page is titled Spam Rules and has two lists:

• Spam Rules: senders that are always marked as Spam or Not Spam. The Set By column shows who made each rule: You, Domain (your domain administrator), or System (your system administrator). You can only change rules set by You.
• Trained Rules: what SpamFoo learned from your corrections, for both spam and Email Classifications. You can delete them.

Rules set by Domain or System show Yes or No under Enabled. You can't open, change, or delete them.

Your Spam Rules

A spam rule tells SpamFoo what to do with mail from a sender, every time. Use a Not Spam rule for a sender you always want to hear from, and a Spam rule for one you never want to hear from.

• A rule can match one email address, such as [email protected], or a whole domain, such as example.com.
• Use * as a wildcard. For example, *@example.com matches every address at that domain, and *.example.com matches the domain and all its subdomains.
• A rule decides the result for that sender before SpamFoo checks the message, so it also skips phishing checks. Be careful with Not Spam rules.

Add a Spam Rule

1. In the Spam Rules list, click Add Rule.
2. In Email or Domain, enter the sender's address or domain.
3. To cover subdomains too, turn on Include subdomains.
4. Under Action, choose Spam or Not Spam.
5. Optionally, add a Note to remind yourself why you made the rule.
6. Click Create.

You can also create a rule from a message, either for its sender or for the IP address that sent it. See Take Action on a Message.

Change, Turn Off, or Delete a Spam Rule

You can only change your own rules, the ones with You under Set By.

• Change: Click the rule, make your changes in Edit Spam Rule, and click Save.
• Turn off: Use the switch in the Enabled column. The rule stays on the list but stops matching until you turn it back on.
• Delete: Right-click the rule and choose Delete, or click the rule and click Delete. Then confirm.

When Rules Disagree

• An administrator's rule wins over yours. A system administrator's rule wins over a domain administrator's, which wins over yours.
• Not Spam wins over Spam when two rules from the same level match.
• A more exact rule wins over a broader one at the same level. A rule for one email address wins over a rule for a domain, which wins over a wildcard, which wins over an IP address range.

How System Spam Rules Fit In

System Spam Rules cover everyone on the server, so SpamFoo applies them after your own corrections have had a say.

• A System Spam Rule that says Spam always applies. Your corrections can't undo a server-wide block.
• A System Spam Rule that says Not Spam gives way when your past corrections for that same sender decided the message.
• A System Spam Rule also replaces the result of the phishing checks. A Not Spam rule delivers the sender's mail even if a phishing check flagged it.

For how rules and learning fit together, see How Personalization Works.

Trained Rules

SpamFoo fills in the Trained Rules list as you correct messages. See Correct a Wrong Result. Each row shows:

• Applies To Emails From: the sender, or a description of the mail the rule covers. Examples are A mailing list, Replies in one email conversation, and Emails that look like one you sorted.
• Result: Spam or Not Spam for spam rules, or a classification such as Promotions for classification rules.
• Training Method: Manual means it came mostly from corrections you made. Automatic means SpamFoo created it on its own.
• Times used: how many times the rule has matched since it was created. A dash means it hasn't matched yet.

To see a trained rule's details, click it. To remove one, right-click it and choose Delete, or click it and click Delete. Then confirm. SpamFoo stops using what it learned for that mail.

You can't add trained rules by hand. To always treat a sender one way, add a rule to the Spam Rules list.

Start Over

The Danger Zone at the bottom of the page clears everything SpamFoo learned about your mailbox.

1. Click Clear All Personalization Data.
2. Click Clear All Data to confirm.