FogBugz AutoSort automatically sorts incoming email into different areas. The simplest way to use FogBugz AutoSort is to separate spam from non-spam. But you can also set it up to divide incoming email into up to 14 areas. For example, you could divide incoming mail into four areas: Customer Service, Tech Support, Job Applications, and Spam. That way each incoming email can be routed to the right people quickly.
FogBugz AutoSort needs to be trained. When FogBugz AutoSort is not sure what to do, it will put incoming messages into the Undecided area, and you will have to manually move them to the correct area. For example, if a job application appears in the Undecided area, you simply move it to the Job Applications area and FogBugz AutoSort will learn a little more. Sometimes it will make a mistake, for example, putting something in the Job Application area that is really Spam. Once again, you'll move it, and FogBugz AutoSort will continue to learn from your corrections.
After a few dozen emails, FogBugz AutoSort will start doing a pretty good job. With a few days of training you should expect about 99% accuracy separating spam from non-spam. Even though FogBugz AutoSort becomes more and more accurate the more you train it, it can still make a few mistakes, but for the most part, it will do a good job of sorting out email into rough piles for you.
To set up simple email sorting, separating Spam from Non-Spam:
1. Set up a Mailbox in FogBugz. Configure the mailbox to read email from your POP3 (email) server and turn on FogBugz Autosort in the Sort Messages option.
2. Incoming email will start appearing in a project called Inbox. This project has three areas: Spam, Not Spam, and Undecided.
3. On the Filters menu, choose Inbox to see all your incoming email sorted neatly.
4. At first, you'll need to move messages manually to train FogBugz AutoSort. After FogBugz has seen more than fifteen non-spam emails get sorted into their correct areas, it has enough data to start autosorting. When FogBugz AutoSort makes a mistake, or whenever a message arrives in the Undecided area, correct it simply by moving the message to the appropriate area or clicking Spam when the message is spam.
5. Over time FogBugz AutoSort will learn from your corrections. After a couple of weeks you can expect very high accuracy of email sorting.
To further sort messages by topic:
1. Add new areas to the Inbox project. You can also rename the Not Spam area to something more specific. The Spam and Undecided areas in Inbox are special and can't be modified.
2. Although you can set up as many as 14 custom areas in addition to Spam and Undecided, the fewer you create, the better a job FogBugz AutoSort will do.
3. Continue to train FogBugz AutoSort whenever it makes a mistake or when a message arrives in the Undecided area by changing the area manually.
If you are trying to sort messages into different areas, you will have the best luck if there are obvious clues in the message. For example, if you make an area for accounting, various words like "Invoice" and "Receipt" and "Payment" may be good clues that an incoming email goes to the accounting area, and FogBugz AutoSort will pick up on these clues automatically as you train it. FogBugz AutoSort can also do a really good job of sorting messages written in different languages.
However, all artificial intelligence algorithms have their limitations, and there may be cases where FogBugz AutoSort simply can't figure out a good enough clue from the message as to which area it should go in. For example if you try to train FogBugz AutoSort to separate messages based on existing customers versus new customers, it might never be able to do this because there are no consistent clues in the message to do this sorting.
Although the learning process is automatic, it works best where there are specific consistent attributes of a message and message headers that FogBugz AutoSort can cue off of.