Just to add my 2c to the discussion....

I've had a very public email address for 8 years or so. I had it on my
personal website long before the spam was an issue - and by the time it
became an issue, it was too late to take down - it wouldn't have helped, so
it stays.

I use Outlook and pay MONEY for probably one of the best spam filtering
programs out there - Cloudmark Spamnet.

It has NEVER flagged a personal email directed to me. It occassionally flags
a newsletter, but those are very rare - 3x a year max.

I use a Mac at work and the spam filtering built into the MacOS mail program
is pretty good. More spam gets through than at home, but it learns and is
slowly getting better.

The problem I am having is the STUPID real-time spam blacklists. I swear I
hope someone figures out a way to sue them for the shirt off their backs.
They allow ANYONE to claim that a message is spam and they DO NOT verify
before adding entire ISPs to the "spam" lists.

Then the spam lists are distributed to thousands of other ISPs.

Every few weeks my ISP is added to the blacklists and all of my outgoing
mail to people starts bouncing. It usually takes 2-3 days for my ISP to
convince the blacklist people that we're not spammers, but damn it's
annoying, and IMHO they are as bad as the spam they are trying to prevent.

And I refuse to reply to the challenge-response spam systems some people
subscribe to. You mean you're sending ME an email and then I have to jump
through hoops before my reply is even delivered to you? Nope, sorry, homey
don' play that game.

Ahhh, that felt good, getting the spam related venting done. =)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org