The solution (namely, turning @ into <!-- blah -->@<!-- blah --> is
a needless obfuscation that isn't going to actually net us anything.
This sounds like a plausible argument, but it hasn't been my recent experience.
I submitted my 1st Debian bug on 7/29/10 at 3.51pm and got my first spam email on
the address used on 7/30/10 at 5.20pm, less than 26 hours later. Compare that to
the Cygwin mailing list where I submitted a bug on 4/27/10 and where the address
used has, as far as I can remember, yet to receive any spam. Cygwin uses a simple
@ -> at and . -> dot obfuscation method.
I think it very likely that Debian is losing bug reports because of this issue. I
nearly balked myself, and I can assure you that I only went ahead because the Yahoo Plus
mail account (that I pay for) lets me generate disposable addresses. Not everyone has
this capability. Given that spam filters are not perfect I think many people are still
inclined not to knowingly invite spam by posting non-disposable addresses on
the web.
While I agree that my recent experience is a sample of two, and so not exactly solid
scientific evidence, I do think some sort of simple, yet novel, obfuscation method would
be likely to help.
Since it is now attracting spam I'll now disable the disposable address used for my Debian
bug report and this comment. I guess that means that I will now become uncontactable
via my bug report... which ironically is, I gather, exactly what you are trying to avoid
by posting email addresses in the first place. My Cygwin address, meanwhile, is still active...
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