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Mail rule block Craigslist?
#55245 07/17/20 04:39 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Anyone know or figure out how put rule, block in mail from someone sending from Craigslist. Never figure this. Does not seem to be a way for it to work. Even if they have their name in the from field..Would appreciate if someone could solve that. thanks.

Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55246 07/17/20 04:50 PM
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How about posting a copy of the "from" info from one of those emails...blacking out any critical info, of course.

You can probably block ALL mail from Craigslist, but not just some unless there's a unique situation going on.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55247 07/17/20 04:55 PM
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Two things to try:

1. Go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail and select Blocked. Enter the offending email address in the field. Then, click Junk Mail Behaviors and select "Perform custom actions". Click Advanced and go through the options.

2. Go to Mail > Preferences > Rules. Set a new rule and select your options. For me, I have most of them set to Delete Immediately so I don't see spam at all, but you may have another preference.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55248 07/17/20 04:55 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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john brown< b50791c16c8831e2076e47d926037@reply.craigslist.org
Re: Blue Piano Minto condition for sale.

Artie, looks kind of this above.. so yeah... every year or two get complete loon I'd like to get rule to block, but can't figure out how to do so. thanks.

Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
jchuzi #55249 07/17/20 04:58 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Jon, thanks, did not see your post. I don't think that'll work, very convoluted post, so don't have energy to test, but if someone or you want to test and let me know, thanks! As you can see, it's not normal email.

Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55250 07/17/20 05:08 PM
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Originally Posted By: kevs
john brown< b50791c16c8831e2076e47d926037@reply.craigslist.org
Re: Blue Piano Minto condition for sale.

Artie, looks kind of this above.. so yeah... every year or two get complete loon I'd like to get rule to block, but can't figure out how to do so. thanks.

Try setting up a rule like this this in Mail > Prefs > Rules.

Seems like it ought to turn the trick...until it trashes an email you really wanted to receive. (You can set it to send the email to Trash if that's a potential problem.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55251 07/17/20 05:11 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Artie, I do like rules more than Jon idea, never seen that Junk, Block method, but that method you can't even test with the apply button to see works.

Your idea does not work in that then I can never use craig list again, too broad.

Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55252 07/17/20 05:50 PM
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As I said, kevs, "...until it trashes an email you really wanted to receive."

I've never run across even a suggestion that you can block some, but not all, mail from a particular domain.

I think you're stuck with the bad along with the good.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55256 07/17/20 08:07 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Sorry, did not understand that.

Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55257 07/17/20 09:03 PM
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I don't think there is any way to construct a rule that will block the first email from a specific sender, but after that instead of Artie's suggestion of blocking the domain name you could create a rule such that

Code:
If any of the following conditions are met

from contains john brown


You can add any number of other "from contains" conditions for additional senders you want to block.

If you want to limit the blocking to craigslist senders you could take advantage of the fact Mail performs the rules in order from top to bottom and just before the previous rule insert a rule like this
Code:
If all of the following conditions are met

From does not contain reply.craigslist.org

Stop evaluating rules


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
joemikeb #55260 07/18/20 04:56 AM
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kevs Offline OP
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Thanks Joe well I put the name that I see in front of all gobly gook and it did not work, which is the frustrating issue. And I was lucky, this guy had some name there at least to try. Still did not work.

I did not understand that bit.. "If you want to limit the blocking to craigslist senders you "

Ah.. but maybe CL does work..in one respect. I just did a test on the full from.. name and long number and @ craiglist, and put in in inbox next to a couple of older CL replies and made a new rule, and it did move only his to the new folder I made for the rule to move it to. So my guess is if he continues replying to this specific email thread (which has gone on too long), then future replies will be moved, while other new replies to the same ad, from new peole will come into the inbox.. My guess,

However, sometimes I place an ad, later; and the same Loon might reply again; and then CL issues a new code I guess and you have to subjectrd to the goofballs new email... Even if you are lucky enough to see an identifying name in from of the long gobbly gook code. Hope that made sense.

BTW, just doing a test responding to my own ad, I'm seeing my full name in reply, i though CL hides your name.. maybe need to test that more.. When I normally send out email from Apple Mail, I think I do have full name in front of email in from, but that going to client, so / yet, though CL scrambled hid that maybe not.. maybe why I sometimes see peoples name in reply to my ads?

Last edited by kevs; 07/18/20 05:16 AM.
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55261 07/18/20 11:36 AM
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Ah! It wasn't clear to me that you were trying to block emails from a specific sender. I thought the address you posted was a generic example.

I'm not sure why trying to block just the guy's name doesn't work, but it sounds as if the rule you made will work...unless, as you say, his gobbledygook ID changes.

More: Hmmm... Looking at that email address again - john brown< b50791c16c8831e2076e47d926037@reply.craigslist.org - I'll guess that because of the "<," the name is not part of the actual address, which may be why Mail doesn't block the name, only the gobbledygook.

I've got no idea how Craigslist works, so I'm curious to see whether every email from the guy carries the same ID or it changes with each one, and judging from its length, I'll guess that the ID is unique, i.e. a one time ID, and you may be SOL.

Last edited by artie505; 07/18/20 12:26 PM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
kevs #55262 07/18/20 01:19 PM
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Quote:
However, sometimes I place an ad, later; and the same Loon might reply again; and then CL issues a new code I guess and you have to subjectrd to the goofballs new email... Even if you are lucky enough to see an identifying name in from of the long gobbly gook code. Hope that made sense.
There is no way to avoid the first message from a Loon because only you can determine who is loony, but once identified you can easily block emails from them.

I believe you will find that From contains John brown without the encoded CL stuff will work. The downside is that would pick up any email from any John Brown so you could miss desirable messages. That is the purpose of the two cascading rules...
Code:
If all of the following conditions are met

From does not contain reply.craigslist.org

Stop evaluating rules
which would prevent the following rule...
Code:
If any of the following conditions are met

from contains john brown

delete
from executing. This means they would likely have to be the LAST two rules in the list.

COMMENT: Mail rules are helpful but they have improved very little, if any, over the years and their weakness has always their very weak logic structure which makes cascading rules as I suggested necessary, and some reasonable choices impossible. 🤬


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
joemikeb #55263 07/18/20 01:30 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I believe you will find that From contains John brown without the encoded CL stuff will work.

I think kevs already tried that with no joy, "...I put the name that I see in front of all gobly gook and it did not work....," hence my post.

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
The downside is that would pick up any email from any John Brown so you could miss desirable emails. That is the purpose of
Code:
If all of the following conditions are met

From does not contain reply.craigslist.org

Stop evaluating rules
which would prevent the following rule...
Code:
If any of the following conditions are met

from contains john brown

delete
from executing. This means they would likely have to be the LAST two rules in the list.

But that would block a different John Brown emailing from Craigslist.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55264 07/18/20 01:44 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
But that would block a different John Brown emailing from Craigslist.
Yes, it would but since the encoded string, as I call it, identifies a specific craigslist thread, the only other alternative would be having to block the "Loon" on a thread by thread basis. What I believe keys desires, and would be very nice to have, will require very sophisticated AI to achieve and even that would likely be error-prone. 😱


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
joemikeb #55265 07/18/20 01:54 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
What I believe keys desires, and would be very nice to have, will require very sophisticated AI to achieve and even that would likely be error-prone. 😱

Yup!

Hmmm... Looking at this from a different angle, I wonder if, since this particular John Brown is associated with a particular thread, there's any recurring CONTENT in his emails that kevs could use to set up a rule.

More: Are you certain that the string identifies a thread rather than an email? If what I"ve seen on eBay is relevant, it's the latter...although there's probably a thread identifier in there somewhere.

Last edited by artie505; 07/18/20 02:03 PM. Reason: More

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55267 07/18/20 02:51 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
More: Are you certain that the string identifies a thread rather than an email? If what I"ve seen on eBay is relevant, it's the latter...although there's probably a thread identifier in there somewhere.

I don't use craigslist but based on...

Originally Posted By: keys
Ah.. but maybe CL does work..in one respect. I just did a test on the full from.. name and long number and @ craiglist, and put in in inbox next to a couple of older CL replies and made a new rule, and it did move only his to the new folder I made for the rule to move it to. So my guess is if he continues replying to this specific email thread (which has gone on too long), then future replies will be moved, while other new replies to the same ad, from new peole will come into the inbox.. My guess,

That is my assumption. (Yes, I am well aware of what can happen when one assumes.)

The more I think about it the more I am convinced implementing what keys would like using Mail rules will inevitably have the potential for at least some error, so using the delete action is not advisable. The optimal solution would almost certainly have to be implemented at craigslist and not on keys computer. That does not mean a workable solution can't be devised in rules. It is just that the solution may involve some baroque rules and configuration of rules.

The first step would be determining keys' specific requirements including how much effort is he willing to invest in the project. So at this point, the ball is in keys' court.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
joemikeb #55274 07/19/20 08:51 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Originally Posted By: artie505
More: Are you certain that the string identifies a thread rather than an email? If what I"ve seen on eBay is relevant, it's the latter...although there's probably a thread identifier in there somewhere.

I don't use craigslist but based on...

Originally Posted By: keys
Ah.. but maybe CL does work..in one respect. I just did a test on the full from.. name and long number and @ craiglist, and put in in inbox next to a couple of older CL replies and made a new rule, and it did move only his to the new folder I made for the rule to move it to. So my guess is if he continues replying to this specific email thread (which has gone on too long), then future replies will be moved, while other new replies to the same ad, from new peole will come into the inbox.. My guess,

That is my assumption. (Yes, I am well aware of what can happen when one assumes.)

I don't see anything in that other than kevs's guess that gives any indication as to the nature of the string, it seems far more likely to me that it's a hash of user name and thread and email identifiers at the least, and I'll guess, maybe even bet, that kevs's rule won't work for anything beyond the one email for which it's already worked.

I hope he posts back to let us know.

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
...at this point, the ball is in keys' court.

As always.

I took a quick look to see if Craigslist perhaps has some sort of blocking mechanism, but I didn't find anything.

As I said earlier, kevs's best bet is probably a rule dealing with email content if the "loon" uses any consistent language, phrases, tag lines...


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Mail rule block Craigslist?
artie505 #55282 07/19/20 07:59 PM
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kevs Offline OP
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Thank Guy, when Joe's, idea of delete emails at end is too complex for me to understand, unless this is a consistent issue, then I'd re-read it many times.... But this issue only comes up once a year, but when it does, it's important.

I should test craigs list more. Sadly it does not block just that name in front of the gobly gook, and people don't use any consistent text in emails...

Pity you guys don't use craigs list, cause if you did then you'd have some motivation to research more, but this help is fine for now thanks!


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