> Jorge, I tried using java to fox the bots but couldn't make it work. In the > end, I settled for a mailto: form page and made sure the bots can't harvest > the form page by using a meta tag. This seems the way to go because it's > only a matter of time before the bots can decode your ASCII code. All you > have to do, it seems to me, is to tell them to look for only ASCII code in a > page and particularly the code for @ and then it should be quite simple to > decode it. I'm assuming at the moment the bots look for any mailto: code.
Yes indeed and thanks Shangarah, in theory bots can be be made to look for and decode ASCII code, but then again, it becomes a more expensive operation , from the side of spambots at their owners's costs. Remember that million of websites may enter the Net in say, a month, but just the same other millions websites are turned off in the same period, so spammers have to constantly review the web for updates and it is quite likely that no one would bother to miss some hundred or thousand e-mail addresses that can not be harvested by traditional methods. Probability Laws should work every once in while in our favor. OTOH, I would like to have more info about the impact of this " mail to forms" as a way to actually keep contact with the people you want to keep contact with. I HATE having to fill forms in any website and I have skipped visiting websites of good friends of mine who have set intro forms or registration forms prior to see what you are about to see. ( specially those with copyright protection blabber, if you don't want anyone to steal images from you on the Net, just DON"T UPLOAD THEM!). I don't like to be discouraged upfront. I don't buy if I don't see and try before buying, and it is the opinion of many Art DIrectors, Art Buyers Private collectors and Agencies who contact me for business purposes. I rather handle some spam on my e-mail before putting business opportunities at risk by introducing uncomfortable, user unfriendly methods of contact/info. I guess this largely depends on the goals and expectations defined for the website. Any further advise or proposals will be greatly appreciated, since I am at this moment putting together the "moving parts" of my website update, and I had thought of basic methods of protection, nothing fancy, nothing complicated, just like the ASCII converted e-mail addresses. I had actually thought of a feedback form to be filled AT WILL , nothing mandatory, in order to be able to handle more precice statistics about visitors, but again, nothing complicated . Thanks. All the best. Jorge Parra APA/ASMP www.jorgeparra.com =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
