and
The term ‘Bacn‘ has been around for a couple of years to refer to, according to wikipedia:
electronic messages which have been subscribed to and are therefore not unsolicited but are often unread by the recipient for a long period of time, if at all. Bacn has been described as “email you want but not right now.”[1][2]
Bacn differs from spam in that the emails are not unsolicited: the recipient has somehow signed up to receive it. Bacn is also not necessarily sent in bulk. Bacn derives its name from the idea that it is “better than spam, but not as good as a personal email”
Bacn is, generally, non-urgent, not terribly exciting, but may still be information that you want and need.
So we’ve got Spam, Bacn, and then email that actually matters– personal email from one person to another (you!). I’ll call that chops. So, how do you keep current on your chops without getting distracted by the spam and bacn?
At Hotchkiss Consulting we use Google Apps to manage our email, and it does a great job of removing the Spam. But I can’t stand when I’m in the middle of a project and I get distracted by the constant inflow of Bacn, so I decided to get rid of it! Since Google Apps is built on the Gmail core, these instructions should work for any gmail user. Feel free to modify to fit your needs!
a) Add a couple categories to keep stuff straight
I created two new categories, “Bacn” and “Chops”. You can call these whatever you want.
b) Create filters to get that unruly Bacn in its place
I was able to handle everything in 4 filters (add filters by clicking on ‘Settings’ then the ‘Filters’ tab):
1) Identify and label the chops:
From: -{wordpress, support, no-reply, noreply, do-not-reply, help, null, owner, updates, sales, messages, jobs, notification, info, team, research, invitations, hello, webmaster, service, member, root, digest, email@, daemon, talktous, news, newsletter, anonredir, jagent, admin, cpanel, helpdesk, specials, postmaster, bounce, autocreate, linkedin.com, billing, auto}
This tells it that if the email contains any of the above strings, all of which are common in Bacn, that it is not chops (the -{ at the beginning indicates that it needs to EXCLUDE email with any of these strings in the from field)
To: My email address
So– put in your email address here. This will keep many mailing lists excluded. Depending on your email setup, this may or may not work for you.
Doesn’t have: “If you didn’t want to receive this email”, “If you prefer not to receive email”, “Validation Email”, “Dear Customer”, “You have received this email because”, “This email was sent to “, “fill out this short survey”, “You are receiving this email because”, “Unsubscribe at”, “To stop receiving these emails”, “to be removed from further”, “To unsubscribe or change”, “If you choose not to receive”, “simply unsubscribe”, “subscription via the link”, “If you would like to be removed from future”
These strings are common in Bacn, and uncommon in Chops. By looking for them, we’re further reducing the Bacn in your Chops.
Do a test search and check out all your chops. Looking good, huh? If you think so, click on “Next Step”, and tell it to apply the label “Chops” and check the box next to “Also apply filter to … conversations below.”
2) Send the bacn packing:
These 3 filters will identify bacn, and you can do what you want with it. I have my gmail mark it as Bacn and archive it. This way it bypasses my email notification tool, but is still available for later review.
Filter 1
From: {wordpress OR support OR no-reply OR noreply OR do-not-reply OR help OR null OR owner OR updates OR sales OR messages OR jobs OR notification OR info OR team OR research OR invitations OR hello OR webmaster OR service OR member OR root OR digest OR email@ OR daemon OR talktous OR news OR newsletter OR anonredir OR jagent OR admin OR cpanel OR helpdesk OR specials OR postmaster OR bounce OR autocreate OR linkedin.com OR billing OR auto}
Filter 2
Has the Words: “If you didn’t want to receive this email” OR “If you prefer not to receive email” OR “Validation Email” OR “Dear Customer” OR “You have received this email because” OR “This email was sent to ” OR “fill out this short survey” OR “You are receiving this email because” OR “Unsubscribe at” OR “To stop receiving these emails” OR “to be removed from further” OR “To unsubscribe or change” OR “If you choose not to receive” OR “simply unsubscribe” OR “subscription via the link” OR “If you would like to be removed from future”
Filter 3
The last filter I use is to put my email in both the from and to field. This picks up any messages that aren’t either from or to me.