Should I protect other people's email addresses on my wordpress site, and if so, what's the easiest way?
August 18, 2009 8:41 AM Subscribe
I have a website that has profiles of a lot of artists. At the moment I'm putting their email addresses on the site. But I don't want to be the cause of their receiving lots of spam emails. I found this post, which didn't seem to answer this specific question. I also found this post, which was a little confusing, and I'm not sure if I should just paste that entire code into the html editor of the wordpress post every time I want to put in a new email address.
1) am I worrying about nothing? Are spam filters good enough to overcome this?
2) if this is a problem, and it's worth "protecting" email addresses, is there a tool that will automatically convert an email address into an image (like Facebook seems to do)? [I would have to do this process dozens of times, and don't want to have to photoshop each one, if I can help it]
3) If there is a tool that will do that, is there a plugin that will do that in wordpress?
4) Is that even the best way of protecting an email address?
I'm using a mac osx. Thanks in advance for your help.
1) am I worrying about nothing? Are spam filters good enough to overcome this?
2) if this is a problem, and it's worth "protecting" email addresses, is there a tool that will automatically convert an email address into an image (like Facebook seems to do)? [I would have to do this process dozens of times, and don't want to have to photoshop each one, if I can help it]
3) If there is a tool that will do that, is there a plugin that will do that in wordpress?
4) Is that even the best way of protecting an email address?
I'm using a mac osx. Thanks in advance for your help.
I think this is just what your looking for!
posted by Funky Claude at 8:46 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Funky Claude at 8:46 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
Best answer: A few WordPress plugins (among many).
posted by XiBe at 9:02 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by XiBe at 9:02 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
A friend of mine wrote a neat little javascript that allows you to put a text "Mail Me..." on the web page. In the page code, the actual email address(es) are in a list with the components jumbled so as to foil spambots and whatnot. The javascript reassembles the email address correctly and passes it on to your chose email client as a correct address.
No need for images or captchas.
I've used it on various webpages I run and it seems to work just fine. MeFi Mail me if you'd be interested in using it.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:04 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
No need for images or captchas.
I've used it on various webpages I run and it seems to work just fine. MeFi Mail me if you'd be interested in using it.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:04 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
I would just ask the artists if they want their email included at all.
Maybe some of them don't want email, spam or otherwise? For the ones who do opt in, i think any of the above solutions would be a nice courtesy.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:31 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
Maybe some of them don't want email, spam or otherwise? For the ones who do opt in, i think any of the above solutions would be a nice courtesy.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:31 AM on August 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you everyone, and I have tried out the various wordpress plugins mentioned by XiBe (thanks!), and chose this one, which seems to be best.
A side question would be, image replacement or text replacement? Personally, I hate the [at] and [dot] replacements, but at least they're copyable. Images obviously have to be typed out manually. I don't want to annoy visitors... what would you suggest?
posted by omnigut at 9:40 AM on August 18, 2009
A side question would be, image replacement or text replacement? Personally, I hate the [at] and [dot] replacements, but at least they're copyable. Images obviously have to be typed out manually. I don't want to annoy visitors... what would you suggest?
posted by omnigut at 9:40 AM on August 18, 2009
Response by poster: Pardon me, but I switched to emob email obfuscator. This does, in fact, do a fantastic job. Makes the links completely user friendly. Sweet! Again, thanks XiBe. Sorry to ask questions first, answer later!
posted by omnigut at 9:44 AM on August 18, 2009
posted by omnigut at 9:44 AM on August 18, 2009
I use:
contact_name(left bracket)img src="at.gif" alt="@" align="bottom" border="0"(right bracket)some_url.com
Left and right brackets are obvious, MeFi isn't letting me post plain text. The alt allows for copy and paste without having to type it out by hand. That assumes your visitors aren't idiots and can figure that out.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 9:55 AM on August 18, 2009
contact_name(left bracket)img src="at.gif" alt="@" align="bottom" border="0"(right bracket)some_url.com
Left and right brackets are obvious, MeFi isn't letting me post plain text. The alt allows for copy and paste without having to type it out by hand. That assumes your visitors aren't idiots and can figure that out.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 9:55 AM on August 18, 2009
Response by poster: @ Hungry Squirrels. Well, I do like to pander to idiots. Makes me feel noble. I guess why I like emob is that you can just click on the mailto: it creates. Also, I don't like repeatedly typing out or copy-and-pasting things. If there was a wordpress widget that offored your solution, I'd use it. Thanks!
posted by omnigut at 10:25 AM on August 18, 2009
posted by omnigut at 10:25 AM on August 18, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by omnigut at 8:44 AM on August 18, 2009