Changes to Email Address Displays

[Elvis]

In an effort to reduce people from spamming members of Interference, I've always discouraged posting one's email address in a post, signature, or profile.

Of course, spammers will be spammers and persistent scum they are. To help deal with this, and help prevent the members that have still posted their email addresses on the site, I've changed the way that email addresses will be displayed from this point forward.

To the human eye, an email address will appear as:
name@domainname.com
(i.e. Bonochick@interference.com )

To email applications, an email address, if clicked on, will appear as:
name@<!-- NO SPAM -->domainname.com
(i.e. Bonochick@<!-- NO SPAM -->interference.com )


In either case, I think it's quite obvious what you must do in order for an email address to work/be valid; simply replace @<!-- NO SPAM -->_] with @


Why have I decided to do this now?
I've received several complaints the the band 'BLOOM' has been spamming some of our members, and has done so by harvesting emails from the forum. I've reported them across the board to every organization mention and used in their email and all of their service providers.

If you've been spammed by them, and/or feel the need to let them know how you feel about this sort of scummy tactic being used by a band, let them know at the following address:
zedmailuk@yahoo.co.uk

Also, if you've been spammed by this band, please respond to the poll.

Joel

 

[Bonochick]

I was spammed by them, and I like this idea, but what about members who have that symbol in their username? Their usernames look all funkitated now, like gracie (she has the symbol instead of an "a").

 

[Elvis]

oi. I honestly didnt think about that. Going to do a little checking...

 

[Elvis]

Ok... I've made an adjustment so that email addresses still appear normal to the human eye... I've modified my original post above.

 

[Elvis]

I've also made a change that will prevent new member names with '@' in the name from registering. This is intended on keeping people from registering their email address as their username.


This will not affect current members with '@' in their member name.

 

[Bonochick]

Awesome, Elvis!

 

[Sicy]

I've been spammed

 

[Doozer61]

i thought you liked it

 

[Utoo]

I like the ominous label of "No----Not yet!"

 

[Lila64]

 

[Bonochick]

When I edit my profile and hit the button to submit it, I get an error messag that I have to enter a valid email address...because the entry is screwed up in the field them because of the NO SPAM thing. Is there anything you can do about that? Or do we just always have to fix our email address whenever we update our profiles?

 

[the rockin edge]

is the option the add an email address in the reply box meant to look like this now?

 

[Sicy]

 

[indra]

Sicy, you keep getting my hopes up when you post in this thread. Then I come check and they are dashed.





(how embarrassing to feel left out when you don't get spammed )

 

[Sicy]

lol sorry


So I have a question, cant the spammers just do the same thing and remove the <spam> section and continue with their emails?

 

[Elvis]

is the option the add an email address in the reply box meant to look like this now?

Nope.. this is something I have to fix.

 

[Elvis]

lol sorry


So I have a question, cant the spammers just do the same thing and remove the <spam> section and continue with their emails?

Email harvesting programs are automated and look for certain character patterns.... which this format doesn't follow. Keep in mind, in my original post I mentioned 'to the human eye' and 'to email applications'... but I didnt mention the page source... which is slightly different.

 

[Sicy]

This new no spam thing you've done is really messing up a lot of stuff on the boards to be honest.

I'd rather just hit the delete button in my emails. I get all kinds of spam anyway, a few more isnt going to kill me

 

[Elvis]

what is it messing up?

 

[U2Girl1978]

I was trying to update my profile and it said to enter a valid email address. I had to take out the no spam part for it to work.

 

[Sicy]

People's usernames with the @ sign it it are screwed for one reason.

 

[Elvis]

any better?