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[nycphp-talk] SPAM Killing, Invisible to Spiders - Dynamic Image Creation?

invisiblemute geek at invisiblemute.com
Fri Apr 16 16:31:50 EDT 2004


Trying to catch up on 800+ NYPHP listserve messages not including the individual ones since I switched to digest a couple of weeks ago. This list is VERY prolific but still manages VERY high ratio of gold to junk.

Hope this wasn't discussed already but people were discussing ways of dealing with SPAM once you've been targetted and sighted. As a web developer I would very much like to know what you are doing so you don't get SPAM in the _first place_.

Method 1
- - -
JavaScript assembles the email address so it displays to screen normally but a spider going through source code has more difficult time finding an email pattern. Are any of you data miners? Are spiders smart enough to get around this these days?

<script language=JavaScript>
<!--
username = "Joe_Smith";
domain = "nyphp.org";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + username + '@' + domain + '\">');
document.write("Send your love to Joe Smith" + '</a>');
// -->
</script>


Method 2
- - -
Use PHP to split an email address into parts and display as:
Joe_Smith AT nyphp DOT com

Though I see this often on techy sites I am almost certain that spiders can easily figure this one out. Guess one could play around with the permutation to stay ahead of the spiders but that's kind of annoying to do.


Method 3
- - - 
Construct email as images. 
http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/rasmus19990124.php3

This seems to be the most secure method but is most annoying for legitamate users who would have to manually read and enter in an address to email someone with the highest possibility for user input error. 

Thanks.
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