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#1 2007-11-08 22:25:26
- alannie
- Member
- From: Minnesota, USA
- Registered: 2005-09-15
- Posts: 150
[request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
The steps for this method of graceful and accessible email obfuscation are outlined in this ALA article:
http://alistapart.com/articles/gracefulemailobfuscation
I’m developing a site with community-generated content, and having a plugin that could implement the above method would be hugely useful.
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Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
I think this is already included with TXP. Check the txp email tag – it uses JavaScript to obfuscate the email address. Details.
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#3 2007-11-08 23:17:53
- alannie
- Member
- From: Minnesota, USA
- Registered: 2005-09-15
- Posts: 150
Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
Correct, TXP includes an email obfuscation method that encodes using character entities. My understanding is that this method is still vulnerable to some email harvesters.
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Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
i was going to attempt to convert this to a plugin but that ala method seems to require editing your .htaccess’s mod_rewrite rules in order to get graceful degradation. i’m not a plugin expert but that seems out of scope for a txp plugin. if anyone else has ideas, by all means!
Last edited by iblastoff (2007-11-09 05:49:34)
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Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
Additionally, Roel Van Gils’ assumption that
A “+” is typically not allowed in real e-mail addresses…
…is not to be taken literally. The + sign is often used as e-mail’s equivalent of the #fragment identifier at web adresses and allows you to craft special purpose e-mail addresses like “first.lastname+private@example.com”, “first.lastname+commentnotify@example.com” and the like which are all delivered into one inbox.
I use this feature on my GMail account to filter and label incoming messages based on the part introduced by the + sign.
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Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
So Robert – does that mean that we are fine with the TXP email tag?
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Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
Talking of the universe as known to Txpish mankind: Spamwise, <txp:email /> is better than plain mailto: links, weaker than zem_contact. Bots which process JavaScript or decode HTML entities will harvest e-mail addresses exposed by <txp:email />. Consider it a first line defense.
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#8 2007-11-09 15:37:16
- alannie
- Member
- From: Minnesota, USA
- Registered: 2005-09-15
- Posts: 150
Re: [request] Graceful email obfuscation, ALA-style
The + sign is often used as e-mail’s equivalent of the #fragment identifier at web adresses…
Robert, thanks for the enlightening info. Is there a better character you would suggest to replace the + sign that wouldn’t appear in email addresses?
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