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| Creating Spam Resistant E-mail Addresses for Websites |
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Creating Spam Resistant E-mail Addresses for Websites Subtitle: Best E-Mail Obfuscation Practices by Ken Webster There are many ways presented for fighting spam, from hosting features to lawsuits, but we have found this simple bi-layered method of e-mail address obfuscation to be quite effective and easy to use. We have entitled it; “Broken ascii Email Wrapped in Javascript”. First go here and encode your html e-mail address into ascii format. ie: anyone@anywhere.com =
anyone@an Since the Search Engines display ascii code properly without assistance, you can stop here, but a second layer of protection is to break up the ascii coded e-mail address into 3 separate strings and reassemble them using a javascript routine. Taking on this second layer of protection has the disadvantage of not being visible by visitors who browse with javascript turned off. This may not be that big an issue if other contact means such as downloadable v-cards and/or phone numbers are made available. If you choose to break up the ascii coded e-mail address and reassemble make sure and break at least once before and once after the “@” or “@” symbol to further defeat spambots that read ascii code. Never leave the name or the destination URL assembled together in one block of ascii code. Here is the HTML code for the example email address that would be used to reassemble and display the ascii coded e-mail address in browser friendly format on an HTML or XHTML page. Simply customize it for each e-mail address and include it in your page. anyone@anywhere.com =: <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"> If you decide to use this method, simply use the same “breakmail.js” script and change the code for each address. Use the second comment label and replace “anyone” with each individual e-mail address name to keep things in order. Do not include the full address in the comment tag either. If you find this simple code to be of value please leave the author and website comment tag intact. Note: Multiple addresses can be configured under different named javascript files and called up individually as separate files. We didn’t feel it necessary to go into that here due to the fact that the code is “lite” and doesn’t detract significantly from a healthy “content to code ratio” when included on an HTML or XHTML page. Most surfers do not have javascript turned off, however some do. We make it a practice to include a downloadable V-Card (Virtual Business Card) so that visitors can download the contact information into their “Outlook” mail client. We also publish phone numbers and give notice on the contact page similar to: “Please note : To help avoid e-mail harvesters and subsequent spam we have used a simple script that reassembles broken email addresses from the code for browser display. If you are browsing without javascript enabled you will not see the e-mail addresses displayed above.” Most of the “free world” has been diligent in pursuing anti-spam policies through legislation. The effectiveness there can be debated until you reach the fact that many countries lack legislation or any semblance of prosecution if they even have anti-spam laws in place. Note: We also advise never placing e-mail addresses on a “Home” or “index” page. We hope you find this method of spambot resistance as useful and effective as we have. Sincerely, Ken Webster Author Bio:
Ken Webster Ken Webster is a published, award winning technical author, US Patent Holder and Moderator on a leading Internet Webmaster Forum. His experience as Engineering Manager led him into the Marketing Arena, where he co-founded Mountain Eagle Marketing in 2000. Here at MEM we specialize in promoting companies and professionals engaged in; heavy industry, manufacturing, energy and engineering.
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