![\"mug_spam2\"](\"http:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mug_spam2.jpg\")
Spring is here, finally. The long, cold winter is quickly becoming a distant nightmare and, as the birds return to their chirping and the grass begins to grow, it\u2019s time to think about spring cleaning. But before you go looking for your vacuum, worry not. There\u2019s no manual labor involved in this type of spring cleaning, because we\u2019re talking about spam. If you\u2019re not into outdoor winter activities, there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019ve spent the cold months trying to keep yourself from going stir crazy. That may mean you\u2019ve been tweeting and liking, and most likely, sending a lot of emails. And even if you\u2019re not an Apple iCloud user<\/a>, you may have discovered that your emails aren\u2019t getting where they need to be.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a necessary evil of anti-spam filters that messages get flagged and deposited in the junk mail folder. The heuristics are there to save your precious data and Angry Birds game saves from malicious users who want to know your most intimate details, like your date of birth, social security number, and credit card numbers. And sometimes those heuristics flag legitimate emails that meet the criteria set out by those same heuristics. Whose fault is it? Well, nobody\u2019s, of course. It\u2019s not necessarily your fault that you miswrote something in your email or gave an attachment a suspicious name. It\u2019s certainly not the fault of the heuristics, because they\u2019re designed to protect you by looking for legitimate threats. It\u2019s a safe bet that most people would agree: given the choice, people would rather let the legitimate emails get flagged than let one malicious email get through.<\/p>\n
So we can all agree that it\u2019s a delicate balance, but what can you do to reduce the chances that your emails aren\u2019t treated as spam? In an interesting little article at KTAR.com called \u201cAre you sending SPAM?\u201d<\/a> Ken Colburn at Data Doctors discusses the very real occurrence of people inadvertently triggering spam filters by choice of words. Phrases like \u201c100% Satisfied, #1, Act Now!, Apply Online, Best Price, Affordable,\u201d for example, are prime suspects with which heuristic algorithms will have a field day. The answer is simple, the author writes. Use the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a bit ironic, since the article itself is a little lightweight, but the author does provide an email address that you can use to check your emails for…spamminess. It\u2019s probably something you\u2019re not going to try more than once, and there\u2019s no mention of which spam filter is being used, still\u2026it\u2019s interesting. The author also suggests sticking with plain text emails, but that solution is simply not practical in a day and age when rich HTML is a de facto standard used for innumerable practical applications in business and personal settings.<\/p>\n