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Not "too stupid" no. I think 99% of email users have not been adequately trained in why or how they should report spam, and even if they were I think most of t
by SimonPStevens 16y ago
Not "too stupid" no.
I think 99% of email users have not been adequately trained in why or how they should report spam, and even if they were I think most of them would still not care enough to actually do it with any regularity.
When pushed many may acknowledge that they know it exists, they will probably even be able to find the button when asked if given a chance. But they won't remember to do it when they see spam, they'll just ignore it and move on to the messages from people they know.
- seabee 16y agoDo you think this could be improved by alternate wording? Instead of reporting 'spam', ask the user 'was this useful?' or 'did you want this?'. After all, the real goal is giving people a better, more relevant experience, detecting and removing spam is just one facet of that. Whether it's email or search.
- SimonPStevens 16y agoIn general yes, I think improved UI can guide user behaviour to more desirable outcomes. However I don't think it's as simple as changing the button text. Even a process driven UI, like a wizard style interface where you have to click next to progress through each step might work, but users very quickly become immune to dialogs. They don't read them, they just evolve the actions that get them to their goal the fastest, and the users goal does not include reporting their spam.
- patd 16y agoMaybe something more automatic : a user makes a search, clicks on a link, if it is spam, he'll probably hit the back button within a couple of seconds. The average time spent by a user on a result before going back to Google could be used a as metric of quality.
- mthoms 16y agoI'd be very surprised if Google does not already implement this in some form.
- troutwine 16y agoI don't think changing the wording will solve the problem entirely. On the rare occasion that my wife receives spam via gmail she'll simply archive it. The action to hide an email you never did or no longer do care about is so common and so easily accessed by a well-learned key cut that it doesn't occur to her to do otherwise until after the fact; she is well aware that marking spam improve spam filtering, of course.
- bad_user 16y agoI just told my wife: think of that button as being "Report Abuse". She's been applying it ever since quite efficiently.
- troutwine 16y agoOh, for sure. My wife knows what the button _does_ down into the very statistical application of it. I think in her case the issue is a UX problem: it is much easier to archive than it is to report spam. Gmail also makes it far more common to archive, as well. Shift+e for "report spam" would be perfect. Same key, just a bit chorded.
- aubergene 16y agoPeople would always be trying to game such a system. If you worked at company A, and search for keyword shared with company B, lots of people would be tempted to down vote company B in results