How exactly is your account's public email address spam proo

[A2K]

Just out of curiousity? It just seems to be a regular "mailto:" link, so I'm guessing that, in short, you need to actually have an account here to view it (which is precisely something a spam spider wouldn't have)?

[Cowboy]

It just means you can put whatever the hell you want, hence it being spam proof.

[Ketchup345]

I think it is because you can type in anything, like:
[email protected]

Or it can only be seen by users that are logged in.

[A2K]

Having a field specifically for a fake e-mail address kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a public e-mail there in the first place. If that were the case, then why bother with such a field? Why not omit it completely?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: A2K on 2004-04-14 13:57 ]</font>

[Sef]

Hmm...That's a very good point...You could just put a fake e-mail into the actual field...Hmm

[Cowboy]

On 2004-04-14 13:57, A2K wrote:
Having a field specifically for a fake e-mail address kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a public e-mail there in the first place. If that were the case, then why bother with such a field? Why not omit it completely?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: A2K on 2004-04-14 13:57 ]</font>




It is not specifically for that. It is to put what you want the othe rmembers of the fourms to see. You wanna put a fake email address, do that. You want tp put an amail address you only use for forums, friends, or sites, do that. You want to put your main email address, do that. It's there because I'm sure alot of people may have multiple email addresses. Heck, the main email address i use is the one i have on yahoo, i rarely use my real one, the one i registered with.

[A2K]

But if in fact I do put a real one in there, what exactly makes it spam proof, is what I'm asking. Obviously a fake email is automatically spam proof.

[Cowboy]

The admins just say "put anything you want. spam proof" What they mean is that because you can put anything you want and that you dont have to show the entire forum your email address, youre account wont get spammed if you put up a fake email. Of course if you put up your real amail address it wont be spam proof. The only way to do that is to have every email sent through psow scanned before it gets sent, and i dont see that happening, and even then people could just read your address and subscribe you to spam lists.

[ABDUR101]

The way I've always understood it, from a common sense point of view, mind you, is that you put your actual email address in so if you forget your password and get logged out, the site can send you your password, otherwise it's quite a pain in the ass to get it back.

You enter whatever you want in the spam proof email area if you don't want anyone else to know your actual email address, as the spam email will be visible instead of your actual one.

Thats just what makes the most sense to me, but whatever, haven't tested it or looked into it further than thinking of how it worked.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

To further simplify what Abdur said...

The actual e-mail address is your registered address... It requires something to actually be there, because, as Abdur said, if the staff needs to send you your password or something, then they'll use that address.

The "spam proof" e-mail address is just there so that people and bots looking for addresses to spam will pick up that, instead of your real address. In other words, the fake e-mail address acts as a "spam shield" for your real e-mail address, as the real address will be unavailable to the public, while the spam address will be readily visible.

[A2K]

So, in short, the "spam proof" e-mail is in fact, not spam proof at all, and is going to be picked up by spam bots anyway?

Well, that's pointless, if that's the case. I don't want spam coming into any of my e-mail addresses.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

On 2004-04-15 14:43, A2K wrote:
So, in short, the "spam proof" e-mail is in fact, not spam proof at all, and is going to be picked up by spam bots anyway?

Well, that's pointless, if that's the case. I don't want spam coming into any of my e-mail addresses.



That's kinda the point, though. You present an e-mail address that you don't care whether or not it gets spammed in the "spam proof" e-mail address, and the real address is forever hidden, accessible only to the website's administrative functions. Think of it as a "secret" address and "public" address. Just like how I might sign up for a website's services, I'll be required to tell them that my real name is "Garrett Courtney" for the purposes of the site contacting me, while for the purposes of being contacted by other visitors of the website, I'd be required to provide a nickname, which may very well be "GarrettCourtney" or something more sheltering of my identity, such as "HUnewearl_Meira". The catch? If my real name were made public, then I could be found by anyone willing to make an effort to look for me. If a false name is made public, then well, they're never going to find "HUnewearl_Meira" in the phone book.

[eRUPT]

What a silly and dumb topic.

Anyhow since its so difficult to grasp the concept of a fake email. Alot of people put their public emails as something they don't care to get spam to.

#1 purpose of having your real email in the database is to recover your account in the event you lose your password and if you don't think anyone loses their password then what a joke, we get probably 20-40 people a week that have to recover their password. And then we get the people that did decide that they are the worlds most wierdly paranoid email person there is and put a fake email in both slots and beg me to please change their password anyhow.

Either way I log ever single email that is used to register so regardless of you changing it after you register I know what you used.

So its very simple, if you are worried about spam then make sure you put something crappy in the fake email slot or just put something that is fake. So YES forum wizards your real email address is SPAM Proof, you having also putting it in the public field is your own moronic notion and you deserve spam for having done that.

mmmmmm more stupid questions today for my migraine I'm ready to answer.