Not mail, not spam? That's bacn!

Some group on the web has come up with a new buzzword to describe mail that is not spam, but not personal mail either - bacn; It's all those messages in your inbox that are somewhere in-between; News alerts, return receipts, news subscriptions etc. You want them, but not right now, and you don't want them to clutter up your inbox. They've decided to call the phenomenon for bacn - pronounced as in bacon (and eggs) - but without giving any explanation as to what the acronym stands for. They even have their own "official" web site at http://bacn2.com/
I tried out the mail features in Lotus Notes 7, and found they provide an excellent solution to the problem. I'd recommend you try it out yourself;
In your mailbox you find an entry in the left column called "Tools". Click on that, then on "Rules". Here you can set rules on how to treat mails that meet certain criteria. Notes searches for the character string you define, then performs the requested action. I move all my "bacn" mails into the predefined Junk mail folder, and look at them when I get the time. This has been a great help in cleaning up my mail box.
But Notes 7 has more to offer. In your mailbox, click on the "Tools" button at the top of the view, then select preferences. Here you can turn on a feature where all mails that are addressed to you and you alone get a blue dot, all mails where you are among a few addresses get a blue half moon, and the others get a white dot. It is also possible to color-code incoming mails, so that mails from certain senders are colored red, blue or green in your mail box.
Also, I recommend using the "follow-up" function, to set a flag on incoming mails you need to follow up later. Just click the Follow-up button at the top of the view, and you will find all these mails later in the Follow-up folder on the left. Great stuff!