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Re: Re: Anti-spam email links in Javascript

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Apr 14, 2004 4:29AM

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Mike Brockington wrote:

> To re-iterate; the reality is that I WILL NOT be allowed to expose
> email addresses without sensible obfuscation.

Didn't you say there were some _requirements_ to make address information
available? It sounds like your organization is seriously
self-contradictory. Sorry, I can't help you with that.

> THEREFORE if I am to provide email contacts at all then I NEED to find
> some other/additional solution.

Then

> The only one that has been proposed so
> far is to use a form-mail page.

Do you expect that no spam will ever come through such an interface?

>. On the other hand there is significant incentive for
> 'assistive' browser manufacturers to bring their software in line with
> 1990's technology levels by supporting Javascript

Why should they take people back to the 1990's? In a World Wide Web where
JavaScript is so often used to create annoying popups or to spread
viruses, many people just have to switch it off. Besides, many people have
no choice, since the company's firewall filters out JavaScript, or the
company police makes sure browsers have JavaScript off.

> this whole issue is
> in fact nothing to do with User Disability, and everything to do with
> Browser disability.

Sorry, but that's simply nonsense.

> Please don't misunderstand my intentions - I fully support the idea of
> accessible design, but

I've heard such statements before.

In this case, accessible design is _very_ simple.

> Again though, that brings me back to the point that what the WAI says
> is NOT 'do not use' but 'provide an alternative'.

Well, you can put the simple content - E-mail address - inside
<noscript>. _That_ would be an alternative. But naturally it would just
show that the obfuscation is the problem.

> My original question
> was whether a form-mail page was a 'suitable equivalent'

Of course it's not. It is not an equivalent alternative.

> I should also spell out here that I am talking about a large number of
> email addresses, not just one or two webmaster addresses, so the
> potential impact of exposing them all would be significant.

Then implement spam filters in the mail server.

--
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/


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