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Doing Email with MiserMail

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This page describes how MiserMail will be different in basic operation
from your current email program after it is configured. Configuring
MiserMail involves: 1) Setting up connections, 2) Following a
step-by-step procedure in Help to make spam filter settings.

Message lists

When you open MiserMail, you will immediately see your list of
previous messages. The list is similar to your current program with
sender address, date, and subject, except that the spam and
pornography will be missing.

As opposed to your current program, both sent and received messages
are in this one list, separated with different colors and icons. The
reason for this is that it is easier to review all recent
correspondence in one place, or all correspondence with a certain
sender. One mouse click will collapse the list for a certain
correspondent (sent and received), or just received messages ("In
box") or just sent messages ("Out box") or other things like
"Category."

Collecting mail

To collect mail, you'll click on the "mailbox" toolbutton. Though
rare, MiserMail will pop up the sender address and subject of any file
attachments having file names that indicate possible viruses, and
suggest you click "Ok" to delete them unless you know the sender and
were expecting the file.

If you received mail, the new messages will be added to the top of the
list, just like with your current program, except there won't be any
spam or pornographic messages included. If you use multiple folders,
the list containing any new messages will be displayed.

Viewing messages

To view a message in the list, just click on it like in your current
program. But now there is a major difference:

You will immediately see a "plain-text" copy of the message. In the
vast majority of cases, this is all you will want to see or read.
Except for some types of spam, messages these days have multiple parts
beginning with a "plain-text" copy, an "HTML" copy with the same
content which is entirely redundant, and rarely other parts with
pictures or any other type of content. Besides these parts of the
messages itself, there may also be file attachments.

Any of these extra message parts and file attachments might be
viruses. That's why you don't see them right away with MiserMail.
Today's viruses can be particularly nasty. Besides wiping your hard
drive or destroying valuable files, they can send any content
imaginable, including content found on your computer, to all your
correspondents and make it appear to be from you.

Once you "see" or "run" a virus, it's too late! All extra parts and
file attachments are instead listed at the bottom of the plain-text
copy, indicating type of content. To view these, you must click on the
part you wish to view.

On the rare occasions when you will want to view an extra message
part, MiserMail will first do two things. First, it checks to see if
there is executable content within the message part. If there is, you
cannot view it (it is most likely a virus), though there are advanced
settings to override this with certain senders or certain types of
files. Common picture formats will pass this test.

Second, for file attachments only, it checks to see that the message
is from a known sender address found either in sent or received
messages, your address book, or in an auxiliary list of "Ok senders."
If it doesn't find the address, MiserMail won't let you view the
attachment. Again, there are advanced settings to override this
feature.

The two tests involve a lot more than described, and there are
additional test variations and settings. But the above sufficiently
describes differences in operation, and the finer details are not
prudent to publish. And you can always override settings or ignore
warnings to view any dangerous content you really wish to view.

If a message part or attachment does not pass the tests, you are given
the opportunity to review the contents in the editor with any binary
content removed. In most cases, there will be text content that helps
to identify the file. For instance, Word documents (which can contain
viruses) can safely be read this way before viewing them in Word.

Assuming the message part or attachment passes the tests, a large
warning popup will appear suggesting you select "Cancel" if you do not
know the sender or were not expecting the file. This is just a
redundant precaution. If you know the sender and were expecting this
type of content, then it is safe to view the message part or
attachment. These warning popups can also be removed with advanced
settings.

The message part or attachment will then be shown or executed just
like with your current program, with two exceptions: 1) Any "Java"
code will be disabled. Java code is too complicated for anyone but
experienced programmers to evaluate, otherwise it is much too
dangerous to execute when received through email. 2) Any web links
indicating Java or other executable code at the destination will be
disabled. This is one reason why internet programmers and other
professionals are excluded from the recommended user profiles.

Clicking links within messages

When you click on web links within messages in the MiserMail editor,
the above virus protection features will also apply before the web
link will be operated in your default web browser. (You can also click
on email addresses within messages to send replies or new messages to
that email address.)

Why worry about viruses if a message is from a known sender?

Because you can't really tell if it is from a known sender until you
view the message and then it is already too late! Virus senders know
how to put a familiar sender addresses in the "from" line. Also,
viruses can be forwarded unintentionally inside messages from people
you know. There is just no safe way to view binary content (other than
common picture formats) unless you were expecting the content as a
result of prior communication, or regularly receive the same type of
content from a particular sender. The plain-text "preview" lets you
verify this.

Business users

Note that business users only care about the "plain-text" copy except
for the occasional email with a photo, Word document, spread-sheet,
etc., received as an attachment. If this describes you, then MiserMail
will be more convenient than your current program. But in the long
run, it is a lot more convenient for everyone not to have viruses
infecting their computers.

Something extra you need to do once in a while

Every once in a while, a prominent red light will come on in
MiserMail. If you receive 10 spams a day, the red light will come on
about three times a week on average, though it could be twice that or
half that in particular cases or during particular weeks.

When the red light comes on, it means MiserMail received a message
that it is almost certainly spam, but it cannot be sure. You do not
need to do anything right away. The red light will stay on until you
click on it, including between email sessions. The message could only
be from a new sender, someone who has never emailed you before. So
they will probably not expect a reply right away. But you should click
on the red light within a few days at most.

When you click on the red light, the email address, date, and subject
of the "questionable" message will appear in red. It will almost
always be a spam message which you will know right away. In this case,
you do nothing. Just continue email activities or close MiserMail and
the red light and red message will be gone. But if it looks like a
legitimate message, click on the line to open it. If it is indeed a
legitimate message, hit the F5 key. The message will now be included
in your regular messages.

It should take only a few seconds to look at these "questionable"
messages and "handle possible misidentifications." This is the real
test of a spam-filter. It is relatively easy for a filter to remove
spam - it is handling "misidentifications" that is the problem and
usually the big time-waster. One of the major benefits of an
integrated filter is that the procedure to handle possible
misidentifications can be reduced to a few seconds per week for most.

With MiserMail, the "questionable" spam that may contain misidentified
messages is less than 10% of all spam, and experience so far indicates
that it can be tweaked down to 2% - 3% (and the spam removal rate can
be tweaked from 99% to as much as 99.9%). The above figures are based
on a 5% rate of questionable spam called the "bounce rate." Since the
most recent filter update, we have received about 180 spams and the
light came on 7 times (a 3.9% bounce rate), with two groups of three
"questionable" spams each being close together. Currently, our main
development focus is getting the "bounce" rate down further, resulting
in even fewer "seconds per week" required to handle
misidentifications.

In case you are not experienced with spam filters, a 99.9% spam
removal rate with a 4% "bounce rate" is considered impossible, or at
least phenomenal! In any case, only an integrated filter could
accomplish these numbers. More important, only an integrated filter
could make handling of "misidentifications" so convenient and
reliable.

Note: MiserMail has exhaustive capability and options to send actual
bounces, recontact requests, email address verifications, and (if you
so desire and have a good lawyer) nasty letters back to spammers and
other undesirables. We used to emphasize this method first, but the
"bounce rate" has become so low that it is easier for most just to
click the "red light" once in a while. It's your choice. We still
recommend bounces in one of the configurations for people who don't
want to see any porn at all.

Composing mail

MiserMail only creates "plain-text" messages internally, with the
ability to send any type of additional content as file attachments.
This is because, since we've been doing email we have never wanted to
send mail any other way, and the people we do business with don't want
to either (assuming they have a choice).

But of course that does not apply to many among the recommended user
profiles. You may want to send fancy HTML messages with pictures and
other content within your messages as your current email program
probably does by default. MiserMail includes three features to make it
convenient to compose these types of messages.

First, if the extra parts are just pictures, documents, or other
content in the form of a file on your system, you can send them as
file attachments instead of including them in the message itself. It's
all the same to the recipient. In fact most recipients would prefer to
receive "extra parts" as attachments (It's safer with most email
programs).

Second, you can invoke a recommended freeware HTML creation program
from within MiserMail, then make a MiserMail selection to pop the
finished document into the MiserMail editor for reviewing with the
MiserMail "View HTML" button and sending from within MiserMail.

Third, you can invoke your current email program (or any email
program) from within MiserMail, use it to compose and send the message
as you do now, but with auto-forwarding to MiserMail. The next time
you collect mail with MiserMail, your sent message will be included in
MiserMail messages. Since both sent and received messages are in the
same list, it doesn't matter that it is a received message, and
MiserMail can mark it as a sent message.

Other differences

The above differences cover the great bulk of email activities.
Another major difference is that the MiserMail interface is
exceptionally uncluttered in favor of beginners. This means you will
need to experiment or read Help to operate some convenience features,
unusual email features, and some features for advanced message
handling.

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