Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: SPAM filter on Community's EMail Address?

[Jeffrey Sullivan (jeffrey.mudge.sullivan]

On 6/28/07, Robert Heinich <robert [at] enocommons.org> wrote:
> I monitor the inquiry emails sent to Eno Commons.  If someone wants to come for 
> a tour or have a question about Eno Commons, on our web site and other sites, 
> we request that send an email to outreach [at] enocommons.org.  Emails sent to 
> that address get redirected to my inbox.
>
> It probably will not surprise anyone the amount of spam that public email 
> address receives.
>
> Our host service has BoxTrapper.  BoxTrapper protects your inbox from spam by 
> forcing all people not on your white list to reply to a verification email 
> before they can send mail to you.
>
> I have been very tempted to enable this service but have a concern about 
> putting off folks who want to know about us.
>
> Your thoughts?

I would recommend taking your email off of the website and using a
form instead.  People won't usually have any trouble filling it out,
but spam bots will miss it completely.  You can check out
http://samocoho.com/ and click "Contact Us" then my name (Jeff
Sullivan) for an example that I use.  Our website has only been up for
about half a year, but I have not gotten one spam message delivered
through that account.

Another option is to replace the text of myname [at] mydomain.com with an
image of the same (even better an image of something human readable
but not containing "@" like: myname AT mydomain dot com).  Adding
shading, colors, patterns, etc. to the background of the image will
make it that much harder for a spam bot to discover your address.

Neither of these methods can take you off of the existing lists, but
they can prevent you from getting trawled by more spam bots in the
future.

HTH,
Jeff

> -Robert Heinich
>  Eno Commons Cohousing
>  www.enocommons.org
>  Durham, NC
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