Cost of FirstAlert

Terryphi · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 5:51 am Post subject: Cost of FirstAlert

Internet Magazine (UK) has a review of Mailwasher Pro in the latest issue (February 2004.) It goes on to mention FirstAlert and states that the cost will be $19.95 per year. This sounds too expensive to me for a service where I am doing most of the work! My filters currently do a much better job than FirstAlert but I am happy to take the time to report spam as part of the fight against spammers.

It seems to me that FireTrust will have to acknowledge the work put in by some users to produce a marketable anti-spam database and reflect this in the cost charged to them. Others will happily pay for a service which they contribute little to in terms of reports.

What do others think about this?

TTam · Guest

I think that this is the most non-responsive company I have ever seen, to be honest. For well over a month I've been reporting hundreds of messages per week, yet the performance of the program degrades. There is NO input or information in this so-called "Support Forum", and I agree that the current users are doing all the work.

I plan to cease my reporting activity to spend that time doing other more useful things, until such a time that the FA system actually works, in which case I'll re-think that position.

This is not something I wanted to do. FA was an exciting concept with much to offer, but it has been a total disappointment to me and others, I suspect.[/quote]

sailwave · Corporal Joined: Aug 21, 2003 Posts: 70 Location: UK

Having had some research experience in pattern recognition I think they've 'picked' a very difficult problem to solve; and in 'real-time' too; it's so easy for a human being to say "that's obviously the same message, it's just got some junk text at the top" (for example) but very difficult to formalise without going down the slippery slope of adding an endless clutch of heuristics; especially given that it has to be language independent...

I will continue to report my ~2000+ spams per week for a while yet...

CJ

Wayward · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Cost vs. Return

boo · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 10:11 pm Post subject:

I'm sorry if some of you think that you are doing all of the work, but FirstAlert! is still in a trial phase. Everyone using FirstAlert! at the moment signed up for an account of their own accord, and it was made clear that it was for a public trial.

Also, to put you all straight, the cost of FirstAlert! has not yet been decided. We should have some progress on this in the next few days. We had originally (ie at the end of beta testing) published in the FAQ's that the price would be $19.95 per year, however this decision needed some more thought.

Cheers

stan_qaz · Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2004 11:02 pm Post subject:

Lot of folks are new to actually reporting spam, they need to try reporting to another system for a while and see what the free/low cost systems are like before they get too upset about $20 here.

For 5 cents a day it will be a good deal if the false positive problems can be controled. Right now that is hard to evaluate without turning off your legit filters and friends list. That is fine for a day or two of testing but the work and danger of zapping a good mail is too much for long term testing. I've made some suggestions with input from others on ways to build confidence in the First Alert system. Search on stan_qaz and First Alert if you'd like to chip into the discussion.

sukie1941 · Guest

Does anyone know when the trial version of First Alert will end and a paid version begin? I am still reporting daily.

rusticdog · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 3:41 am Post subject:

TopDog · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 4:18 pm Post subject:

I signed up solely to help in the development of FirstAlert. I don't look at it as work on my part. I look at it as voluntary effort on my part to help control spam in the long run. I have seen some benefit from the program thus far and feel it will develope into a worth while tool. I plan to give the folks at Firetrust all the support I can afford as both Mailwasher and Benign have done wonders for me in controlling the spam I have to deal with daily. As long as the final cost of subscription isn't outrageous (and I don't think $20.00 is too much) I will happily add FirstAlert to my arsenal of weapons used to control spam.

longrun · Cadet Joined: Jan 30, 2004 Posts: 2 Location: USA

It seems silly to regard FirstAlert as a separate program; it's really part of Mailwasher Pro, or perhaps a Mailwasher Pro Deluxe or somesuch. Also, if I recall correctly, registered owners of MWP were offered a discount on Benign when it was released. It seems only fair to offer a discount on FA to those who have participated in the trial.

stan_qaz · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:27 pm Post subject:

First alert is offered free with mailwasher as a part of the program, what is being charged for is the processing and reviewing of the submitted spam, the database maintenance, the traffic costs and fingerprint tweaking that are an ongoing expense after the program ships.

Every user that buys mailwasher will end up with the first alert code and if they want to help pay for the costs of the back-end systems thay can use them.

It is like your virus program, you get with your computer as a freebie and they throw in 30 to 90 days of updates. If you want them to keep it updated you pay more for the ongoing service after they have given you the program.

rusticdog · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2004 9:36 pm Post subject:

Guest · Guest

stan_qaz · Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: Cost of FirstAlert

rusticdog · Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 9:29 pm Post subject:


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