Sigh. Here’s a weird one. I’ve just uploaded a much-expanded version of a client’s company web site. The client herself is very pleased. But the IT guy is on a tear about potential spam. I’ve explained to him the anti-spam action I use for every page (java slicing, and all). Is there anyone with expertise who can give me some reasonably-stated blurb about why this is as effective as something else that might be done? I know spam can never be entirely eliminated, but I’ve always been pleased to inform clients that I embed special anti-spam code on all pages in order to reduce it. (This IT guy, by the way, is not a designer or web guy. He does networks and things.)
I’ve always been pleased to inform clients that I embed special
anti-spam code on all pages in order to reduce it.
Yep, that’s pretty safe, although it probably doesn’t look safe to
that guy as he’s seeing the browser-rendered result rather than the
obfuscated code.
The only way to get any safer is to use a form instead of a clickable
email link.
Thanks, Keith. I used your phrase and sent him a snippet of the code associated with the company’s administrator’s e-mail address. Hopefully, that’ll put a halt to his “you don’t know what you’re doing” tone, which he bothered to CC to two other people.
Hi Laura,
Allow me to try and explain this. Both the Anti Spam action (http://www.freewayactions.com/product.php?id=002
) and to certain extent the ‘Email hiding’ option in Freeway 5
obfuscate standard e-mail links in the hope of combatting spam bots.
These automated scripts tend to trawl the web looking for e-mail links
(mailto tags) to harvest. Freeway 5 converts the email address into
something called entity codes which will fool most of these tools and
Anti Spam offers this and six other methods for hiding the address.
Each level of protection comes with it’s own dependancies (some
require JavaScript, others PHP or ASP for example).
There are some (dubious looking) tools available that will allow you
to estimate just how protected your addresses are including these; http://www.willmaster.com/possibilities/demo/RetrieveEmails.cgi http://blackhatzen.com/tutorial-simple-email-scraper-for-os-x/
If you don’t want to obfuscate e-mail addresses then look at replacing
these with a regular feedback form.
Regards,
Tim.
On 12 Nov 2009, at 16:50, LauraB wrote:
Sigh. Here’s a weird one. I’ve just uploaded a much-expanded version
of a client’s company web site. The client herself is very pleased.
But the IT guy is on a tear about potential spam. I’ve explained to
him the anti-spam action I use for every page (java slicing, and
all). Is there anyone with expertise who can give me some reasonably-
stated blurb about why this is as effective as something else that
might be done? I know spam can never be entirely eliminated, but
I’ve always been pleased to inform clients that I embed special anti-
spam code on all pages in order to reduce it. (This IT guy, by the
way, is not a designer or web guy. He does networks and things.)
Thanks, Tim. Currently, I’m running Freeway 4 Pro, so apparently I don’t have any additional protection built in. Nevertheless, between what you’ve told me and what Keith previously said, I feel about as safe in my response to this guy as I could be.
My client, by the way, is a home health care agency. The administrator wants a lot of e-mail links on pages, largely because as a people-oriented business she doesn’t want visitors to go through loops just to be able to send a simple e-mail. We all know how frustrating it is, in fact, to sometimes find even the most minimal contact info on web sites. Anyway, in addition to e-mail addresses, there actually is a formal contact form as well.
I’ll post back if this guy gives me any more grief. And I might ask him if he’s ensured that his server has spam filters turned on.
As I said, this has been a hugely annoying issue for me today, but I sincerely thank you and Keith and anyone else who has an idea or suggestion. I’m not an expert, but I’ve learned a great deal from this forum and don’t believe I’m ignoring the spam issue. At least now, I feel a greater comfort level in saying that, having heard back from you.
Sometime around 12/11/09 (at 13:37 -0500) LauraB said:
The administrator wants a lot of e-mail links on pages, largely
because as a people-oriented business she doesn’t want visitors to
go through loops just to be able to send a simple e-mail.
Actually, it is arguably simpler for someone to use a web form than
to use an email link. Clicking a ‘mailto’ link triggers the user’s
email software to open (assuming they don’t just use web mail) and
creates a new email message, pre-addressed to your client. The user
still has to actually send the email from their mail client.
With a form the user doesn’t leave the web site, let alone the
browser app. What they generally do need to do is type their email
address so there’s a way to respond back to them. But most browsers
will auto-complete that.
A form is a good idea, Keith. I think in the future I’ll advise clients to at least consider that as an alternative. Personally, as a user not a web designer, I’m not a huge fan of forms myself. I’ve experienced occasions when for some peculiar reason, the form doesn’t complete. (Indeed, during one reply to this thread, I’d gone on at some length, only to have the reply thread dismiss my reply altogether and make me start over. I know this isn’t a form, but you get the point. Probably in the future there’ll be a more ideal solution all around, but I guess for now we’re stuck with the various tools we have. That’s likely why we non code-types so look forward to actions that gentlemen like you are able to create. And I mean that sincerely.)
Laura
On 12 Nov 2009, 8:39 pm, thatkeith wrote:
Sometime around 12/11/09 (at 13:37 -0500) LauraB said:
The administrator wants a lot of e-mail links on pages, largely
because as a people-oriented business she doesn’t want visitors to
go through loops just to be able to send a simple e-mail.
Actually, it is arguably simpler for someone to use a web form than
to use an email link. Clicking a ‘mailto’ link triggers the user’s
email software to open (assuming they don’t just use web mail) and
creates a new email message, pre-addressed to your client. The user
still has to actually send the email from their mail client.
With a form the user doesn’t leave the web site, let alone the
browser app. What they generally do need to do is type their email
address so there’s a way to respond back to them. But most browsers
will auto-complete that.
Indeed, during one reply to this thread, I’d gone on at some length,
only to have the reply thread dismiss my reply altogether and make
me start over. I know this isn’t a form
It is actually a form of sorts, but the problem is to do with
needing to be in an authenticated, logged-in state. This is a
requirement to post here, as with many forums. But a common-or-garden
enquiry form in a regular web site is a passive thing that doesn’t
behave like that.
And Walter also demonstrated a method of having 1 form with a picker for selecting from a list of recipients - I will root around and see if I can find it.
‘Of course no amount of clever technology can stop some grossly underpaid person sat at a pc from actually visiting websites and copying the email addresses onto a spammers list’
Thanks, David. For some strange reason, simple works best for me. The form you mention sounds like it could fit that bill.
Gary? Yep. I did mention that to the IT guy. Called him, too, and called him on his unprofessional behavior. By the time we were off the phone he was stumbling all over himself to apologize and vowing to buy me lunch. Maybe the guy just had a really bad day.