[SC-Help] Re: What's wrong now, Spamcop?

[Mike Easter]

Garen Erdoisa wrote:

> The spamtrap data is not included on the statistics charts they make
> available to the public.

How do you know that?  I always assumed that it did.  Or rather that the
statistics were some 'subset' of the total spam processed, but not
necessarily the subset corresponding to a subset of reporter only
reports and excluding spamtraps.  One sentence on the stats page sez
"These numbers now reflect only a small fraction of total spam being
processed by SpamCop, but they are still representative of the total."

One observation supporting your no spamtrap data is that if you look at
today's stats, the number of reports about equals the number of spams -- 
so if you say that spamtraps don't generate a report, then that
observation would correlate with no spamtraps in the stats.

But if you look at a year or other longer period than a day, you see
that the reports exceed the number of spams significantly -- so then the
presumption becomes that of saying that any given spam generates a
number of reports.  Then, before you presume too much, you have to ask
how the reports are counted.  If a report goes to 4 addresses, is that 4
reports or 1?  Or 2?  One about source?  X addresses about source?  Y
addresses about spamvertiser?

So then, once you/I start realizing that I don't know how we are
counting reports, then it becomes possible for spamtraps to be in the
mix of the statistics even tho' they don't generate reports.  Or, is a
'report' a reported spamsource contributing to the SCbl even if nothing
is mailed?  If so, then spamtraps would generate a reported spamsource
'report' non-report just like a quickreport generates a spamsource
report /and/ a mailed report to the spamsource provider.  Maybe a report
is anything that has a reportid number, and presumably even a spamtrap
report has a reportid.

To me, there are a lot of unknowns about how the stats are generated,
and since the admins don't care to elaborate on the mechanics, everyone
ends up guessing based on assumptions which may or not be valid.

> Those charts mostly indicate spamcop usage
> patterns by people, not total spam processed by spamcop,


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin