Given that I’ve successfully avoided spam by using me at example dot com as an “obfuscation” method for email addresses, I’m not surprised by the findings that spammers are lazy. But it is still interesting to read about good proof through a real test, and I’d hazard a guess that using hex entities may be a longer-lasting method.
I’d consider replacing the JavaScript I currently use, if it weren’t for the fact that people already seem to be able to find my email address just fine. Actually, Phil’s article would seem to support the case that disabling JavaScript is rare. He only got a couple of actual messages to the non-JavaScript address. I guess that’s good news for me.
After Stu came up with the ultra-cool email address obfuscation method through CSS, I quickly wrote the
obfuscate_email()PHP function. I even uploaded my very own email obfuscator, which doesn’t use JavaScript as I’m convinced you can’t rely on that for outputting important content. Hope it’s of any use for you!Mathias Bynens — 14.5.05 @ 4:41
Using directionality is a cute trick, but I’d prefer that the email address can be electronically copied from the page. My name seems to be difficult enough as it is, so it is better if people wouldn’t have to type it in themselves.
Another problem that has been becoming more common is misconfigured mail servers out there, which get rejected by my mail server, or which bounce messages even on temporary failure codes (such as employed by greylisting). I’ve been thinking that maybe a contact form on the web would be “safest” as far as making sure people can reach me.
Kimmo Suominen — 28.5.05 @ 16:00