What does a SpamAssassin 'try it' message from mail-tester.com mean?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from GlockApps explains that content is an important part of your email's placement in the inbox. Even if you have authentication set up, if your content has any spam trigger words it will more likely be placed in the user's junk folder. It is important to have a balance between good content and authentication.
Marketer from Email Geeks clarifies that the 'try it' message from mail-tester doesn't necessarily mean that the exact phrase is present in the URL. It indicates that the URL matches a broader regex pattern associated with that rule.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that receiving a flag from SpamAssassin does not directly mean your email will go to spam. Email providers use many tools and techniques to determine if your email is actually spam, SpamAssassin being just one of the many that the message will have to pass through.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that SpamAssassin flags are just one piece of the puzzle. Focus on overall deliverability best practices rather than obsessing over individual flags. It can be a false positive.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum responds that SpamAssassin impacts how likely your email is to make it to the user's inbox by assigning a score to each email; if the score goes over a set threshold then it is marked as spam and either goes straight to junk or is rejected by the server.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that SpamAssassin is integrated into seed list features of services like GlockApps, potentially for completeness and easy understanding. However, he believes it contributes to the outdated idea of focusing too much on avoiding specific words and phrases.
Email marketer from Sender.net explains that spam filters such as SpamAssassin are more sophisticated now, the best way to avoid being marked as spam is to focus on improving your reputation as a sender, ensuring you only email engaged audiences and they have given consent.
Email marketer from MailPoet explains that SpamAssassin flags don't always mean the email is spam; they are just indicators. It could be a false positive.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that SpamAssassin has a default configuration, but it can be customized by email providers. This customization means that the 'try it' rule and its impact can vary significantly between different receiving mail servers.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that focusing on good sending practices, such as authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and list hygiene, is more effective than worrying about specific words that might trigger SpamAssassin.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that SpamAssassin rules like URI_TRY_3LD are designed to catch common spam patterns, and a 'try it' message means your email triggered one of these rules based on the URLs it contains.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that while he uses SpamAssassin for spam filtering, its relevance might be limited as others may not rely on it.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the URL is flagged as suspicious by SpamAssassin due to its inbuilt patterns for dodgy URIs. He then provides the specific SpamAssassin rule that is being triggered.
Expert from Spamresource.com explains that if you are seeing a URI-related flag it's likely your URL has triggered the rule. Review any URLs in your email and if the URLs look legitimate you should not worry about the flag itself.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from cPanel explains that SpamAssassin utilizes a variety of rules to identify spam, and these rules are regularly updated. The 'try it' flag likely corresponds to one of these rules designed to detect patterns common in spam emails.
Documentation from SpamAssassin Wiki explains that the URI_TRY_3LD rule flags URLs containing 'try', 'start', 'get', etc., in the hostname's third-level domain. It's designed to catch suspicious URLs often found in spam.
Documentation from Wikipedia explains that the GTUBE signature is used to test spam filters. The 'try it' flag is not directly related to GTUBE, but highlights how filters like SpamAssassin work based on patterns.
Documentation from dmarcian explains that running tests will show you if you have SPF, DKIM or DMARC set up, if your domain is blacklisted and also show you how your content is being interpreted. Mail-tester.com uses SpamAssassin to undertake some of these spam checks.
Documentation from SpamExperts Knowledge Base shares that SpamAssassin assigns scores to different email characteristics. A higher score means a higher probability of being spam, and 'try it' can contribute to the overall score.