E-mail address masking
I was wondering what you all thought about this...
If I manually escape every character to make my e-mail address look like this, "%64%61%76%65%68%65%70%70%65%6e%73%74%61%6c%6c%63%61", I would like to think that it wouldn't be picked up by a spam scraping bot. (I actually took out the %40 (@) and %2e (.) of that quote just in case it actually posts the normal text through these forums).
If I put that whole string into a "mailto:" link, the address naturally appears normally to the end user once they click on it and it opens in their e-mail program.
So, is this a good idea? Opinions?
Thanks.
- Dave
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Interesting idea...
Unfortunately, I'd be willing to bet it's been thought of by at least ONE spam bot. Spam bots make HUGE money, and they have gotten SMART.
Now that there's no @uoguelph on the end, I'm not terribly concerned. Any further claims that bots are picking up the emails from us, while possible, is unlikely enough that I'm willing to put it to rest. That's a personal opinion, but clearly, if enough people are still concerned (which the calming of that thread indicates otherwise), I'll act on it.
Anyone else worried about our usernames being further exploited?
Randall Roberts
SOCIS President
Not about socis...
That wasn't a spam concern regarding socis forum usernames. This is trying to embed a mailto link that works on my own personal website.
You're probably right... if any one of us here wrote a spambot, we'd think of it...
- Dave
Many users use webmail,
Many users use webmail, which means if they copy the mailto link and paste it in it won't be transformed, causing instant breakage.
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Andrew
Contact forms are key if you
Contact forms are key if you don't want to be spammed... just add a simple check to the submission to ensure that the senders e-mail address exists, or add captcha to it.
Dave
----
"The only thing more dangerous than a hardware guy with a code patch is a programmer with a soldering iron."
Thanks for the advice
I think I'll go with the contact form. :)
Thanks.
- Dave