Gmail spam filter

September 1, 2006 2:28 AM

How do I create a spam filter in Gmail that immediately deletes spam messages once they have been marked as such by myself?

Please note that I already have a filter that deletes spam messages that have been recognized as such by Gmail. The thing is: the messages that are not filtered by Gmail but by myself, still end up in the Spam Folder without being deleted. Just deleting the spam messaged once they enter my inbox is not an option, I would like to report. Thanks.

posted by IZ to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I may be wrong here but I don't believe a filter is not going to do that for you. Filters pick up new mail and shuffle them to various destinations. They won't do anything to mail already in your box unless you tell them to while you editing the filter.

If you could do this, it would be unusual because you're asking for a button that in one click can irreversibly nuke a message. If you delete a message, it is moved to the trash and you have an opportunity to recover it. If you report spam, the message is moved to the spam folder and you have an opportunity to recover it. It may feel great to kill spam dead with one shot but the first time you hit that button by mistake you're not going to feel so good.
posted by charm at 5:11 AM on September 1, 2006

I believe also that anything relegated to the gmail spam folder helps the gmail spamfilter learn. (i could be wrong) so it might be in your best interests to spam it, and just regularly empty out your spam folder manually (there is a useful new feature that lets you select everything in your spam folder across multiple pages, by selecting all, then clicking the small link at the bottom of the spam page.)
posted by Iananan at 5:30 AM on September 1, 2006

Take a longer view: gmail automatically deletes the spam, it just takes 30 days to do it.
posted by bonaldi at 5:56 AM on September 1, 2006

Iananan: I can do you one better, by just clicking the "Delete all spam messages now" at the top of the spam folder. But that's not really what IZ is asking for.

IZ: it doesn't seem as though there's any way to do this directly with GMail's functionality... but I'm wondering if there's a GreaseMonkey script out there that would do it? If not, seems like it'd be easy enough to create one... just have it do "Mark as spam" and then "Delete all spam" in one buttonclick. Sadly, my GreaseMonkey skillz leave much to be desired.
posted by antifuse at 5:57 AM on September 1, 2006