- SpamBayes
Infobox Software
name = SpamBayes
caption =
collapsible =
author = Tim Peters
developer =
released = September 2002
latest release version = 1.0.4
latest release date = March 2005
latest preview version = 1.1a4
latest preview date = June 25, 2007
frequently updated =
programming language =
operating system =
platform =Cross-platform
size =
language = English only
status = Unmaintained
genre =Spam filtering
license = PSFL
website = [http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ spambayes.sourceforge.net]SpamBayes is a Bayesian spam filter written in Python which uses techniques laid out by
Paul Graham in his essay "A Plan for Spam". It has subsequently been improved byGary Robinson andTim Peters , among others.The most notable difference between a conventional Bayesian filter and the filter used by SpamBayes is that there are three classifications rather than two: spam, non-spam (called "ham" in SpamBayes), and unsure.The user trains a message as being either ham or spam; when filtering a message, the spam filters generate one score for ham and another for spam.
If the spam score is high and the ham score is low, the message will be classified as spam.If the spam score is low and the ham score is high, the message will be classified as ham.If the scores are both high or both low, the message will be classified as unsure.
This approach leads to a low number of
false positive s andfalse negative s, but it may result in a number of unsures which need a human decision.External links
* [http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ Project homepage]
* [http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html Paul Graham's original idea]
* [http://radio.weblogs.com/0101454/stories/2002/09/16/spamDetection.html Essay discussing improvements on Graham's original idea]
* [http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/background.html Explaining how SpamBayes works]
* [http://ceas.cc/papers-2004/136.pdf Paper on SpamBayes for the Conference on E-mail and Anti-Spam]
* [http://home.dataparty.no/kristian/reviews/bayesian/ Winning the War on spam: Comparison of Bayesian spam filters]
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