Author: Drav Sloan Date: To: W B Hacker CC: exim users Subject: Re: [exim] Header remove before spam check or parse content
inrouter
W B Hacker wrote: > Personally, I strip damn near ALL X- headers as a courtesy to our users and
> their regular correspondents.
I use only X-Spam-Score for this reason. The X-Spam-Report, to me, deserves only
to live in a log file.
> None of whom have ever been big fans of headers that take up greater screen
> real-estate - if not also byte-count - than the average message body.
The "average user" I've supported over the years uses a client which doesn't even
show these headers and is generally unaware that such things exist. It Seems
pointless to add all these headers if on the whole they are "unseen/unused".
> As admins we can too easily forget just which 'communication' is the reason we
> are here at all.
>
> The user's message content. Not our 'handling overhead'.
I've found the X-Spam-Score header useful over the years (especially when trawling
my own and user submitted 'spam' to add custom rulesets and system filters to
avoid future spam of this neature from getting through). I've also had users who
wanted to "filter" at lower scores, and including this header meant they could do
so in their own exim/procmail/sieve/local email client filters. I think for the few bytes
it adds it's worth the rewards in the long run.
I guess the mileages and policies of various mail systems will vary tho (I've seen
some that like to add the equivalent of novels to X-headers. These have included
the infamous long winded X-Spam-Report header, plus ones at banks where mails bodies
are quoted verbatim in X-Headers :/ )
