When the spam folder isn’t enough, try the block option

Some time ago, I started using the option to block emails before the “mark as spam” option. I now have a very long block list with several hundred accounts… but I have significantly reduced my spam problems.

Let’s start at the beginning: since 2004, I have used Gmail, directly via the website, without using any kind of email manager as such, with the exception of my smartphone, where I use the Gmail app. I have resisted the temptation to use Outlook, or Mail since switching to Mac. In my Gmail archive, I can locate emails from the mists of time: I rarely delete anything: I’m a digital hoarder. My experience has been that Gmail handles spam really well, and my problems are to do with people who put me on a list themselves because they think I should receive their mail, rather than spam as we generally know it. No Nigerian princes, no offers to extend me anything, no get-rich-in-two-days offers, nothing like that. All of that has long since been automatically dumped in the corresponding folder, which I delete every day after a very light and diagonal review process. Very rarely something goes to spam that shouldn’t be there.

Gmail’s “mark as spam” is a social algorithm. When you use it, not only do you send the corresponding mail to the spam folder, but you also send a copy to Google to process and see if other users have…