[email protected] wrote:
A colleague quoted in an email "email spam from web crawlers is a problem for you and your IT department, obfuscating email addresses on your website turns your problem into a problem for your users".
...
I was told he found this twaddle "on the web." Anyone know where this quote might have come from?
No idea where it's from, but it's a valid point. Fundamentally, obfuscating email addresses is about making potential contacts jump through hoops, and assuming that valid contacts will be more motivated (or at least have better software) than spammers.
Sure, you can mitigate it by using JavaScript to generate a link in the browser. But you'll still run into the occasional person who surfs with JavaScript disabled, or who is trying to find your contact info from a mobile phone with minimal or no scripting support -- and they'll have to manually type in your address, then go over it to check for typos.
Not to say you shouldn't do it, of course -- some sort of obfuscation is practically a necessity these days -- but it *is* a trade-off that can impact usability.
-- Kelson Vibber SpeedGate Communications <www.speed.net> _______________________________________________ NOTE: If there is a disclaimer or other legal boilerplate in the above message, it is NULL AND VOID. You may ignore it. Visit http://www.mimedefang.org and http://www.roaringpenguin.com MIMEDefang mailing list [email protected] http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/mailman/listinfo/mimedefang
