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HTML E-Mail Form Question


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Hi everyone. I'm working on my first real website (To replace a site the company has up now), and was wondering if there is a way with HTML to do an e-mail form that protects our e-mail address from crawlers. The current website has our e-mail address on it, and we've been getting a lot of spam at that account as a result (This is my belief).

So, since I'm rather new at this, I wanted to ask what the best way of doing this is.

Thanks Again,

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Server side is the best way. Have them fill out a form, and a captcha (The hard to read security numbers/letters). Then if the captcha and fields are filled in, then send the email. That will hide the email address, and cut down on spam.

You just need a host that supports server side scripts. php, ruby, asp, perl, python ect.

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^ That post pretty much hits the nail on the head.

I'd just like to add that a CAPTCHA is often unnecessary. Quite often, just having a form rather than an email address will prevent a lot of spam bot. Add a CAPTCHA only if you are getting a lot of spam form submissions, otherwise it's just another hurdle between you and legitimate users.

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Thanks, I'll look into Asp or something. I have Windows hosting... I've never done an Asp page though, so it should be interesting. I just want to do it right if I can... Right now we're getting a lot of spam, but I figure if the e-mail isn't harvestable it likely won't be as bad. I'm honestly not sure how else to resolve that.

Thanks Again,

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In addition to server side forms, you probably want to add not using popular email addresses.

There's a webmaster@domain for pretty much every domain out there. Don't use it.

Other common addresses are: info@, contact@, sales@, you name it...

Use something different.

Heck, for giving away to humans just use something like contact<company>@domain,

for communication with the form a number will do, something like 43564356@domain.

Also turn off routing all unknown addresses to an existing one!

That system should almost be rock-solid, not talking about humans spreading your address across the web (with no bad intention).

You'll be able to turn off your anti-spam software I guess.

Glassed Silver:mac

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There's a VERY simple solution to this: http://csarven.ca/hiding-email-addresses

I've used it for years, NEVER any spam.

The CAPTCHA solution only works if you're doing the emailing server-side, for those not coding such sites and want to advertise the email address to allow visitors to use your own client-side software (e.g. Outlook).

On web sites I have simply listed a MAILTO email address, they've been harvested and spammed to death, but using some of those methods in the link above seems to work.

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Most likely the spam will continue since the e-mail would have wound up on a list.

This is true. It'll probably be worth using a different email address for the new system.

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