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Post by skyfire on Sept 10, 2009 20:05:37 GMT -5
Currently, I'm taking an HTML class at college.
It's recommended that anyone who wishes to be taken seriously as an author eventually get their own website.
To go along with said class, I'm in the process of writing such a site for myself.
As part of it, I want to put an e-mail address to where I can be reached. However, since people sometimes use bots to look for such contact buttons, I had an idea for how to get around it.
Anyone clicking on the "contact" link will be taken to another page. This page will explain to them my concern about bots, and that as such I'm taking a security precaution.
The precaution?
Five links simply named "link."
Click on one, and you get my GMail addy.
Click on the others, and you get Rick-Roll'd.
I figure that a normal person should be able to put it together based on moving their mouse over the links, but a bot won't.
Thoughts?
Thanks.
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Post by RavynousHunter on Sept 10, 2009 20:15:04 GMT -5
Most bots would be fooled by it, but there are more advanced bots out there that wouldn't fool. Of course, many bot writers are lazy as hell...so yeah.
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Post by mistermuncher on Sept 10, 2009 20:15:05 GMT -5
It's not that difficult, just a mite counterproductive. It would necessitate having the addy in there in code, which a bot can easily see (it's reading the code raw, so what a link appears as is totally irrelevant), but which involves a mental gear-change for your human audience.
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Post by Vene on Sept 10, 2009 20:51:33 GMT -5
If I'm trying to contact somebody and am Rick Rolled, you better fucking believe I'm not going to deal with that person anymore.
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Post by A. Sapien on Sept 10, 2009 21:18:39 GMT -5
If I'm trying to contact somebody and am Rick Rolled, you better fucking believe I'm not going to deal with that person anymore. Agreed, it'd pretty much be my final visit to the site. |
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Post by Sigmaleph on Sept 10, 2009 21:26:50 GMT -5
Way more complicated than necessary. Just put the address as an image instead of text, that should deal with the bots.
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Post by mistermuncher on Sept 10, 2009 21:34:09 GMT -5
At the end of the day, if someone can be arsed to email you, they'll type an address into their e-mail client, or edit the bot-proofed text. This is what people are used to, and by and large don't mind. even a word-verification type of thing is accepted broadly.
Make 'em squint at the bottom left of the browser (and this assumes certain platforms, too, eliminating mobile devices, a few odds and ends of browsers, even certain settings within browsers) and they'll be properly fucked off if they get some shitty, stale meme thrown at them as a result. Doesn't reek of professionalism. Straight out of the GeoCities school of web design.
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Post by skyfire on Sept 10, 2009 21:45:51 GMT -5
Way more complicated than necessary. Just put the address as an image instead of text, that should deal with the bots. True. I'll probably revert to that once I get to the chapter on embedding images. I just wanted to toss this idea around first since. |
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Post by Mantorok on Sept 10, 2009 21:50:13 GMT -5
It would necessitate having the addy in there in code, which a bot can easily see (it's reading the code raw, so what a link appears as is totally irrelevant)... A bot doesn't look at a rendered page, it reads the source. It'll find your email address no matter which link contains your address because it's only going to look for mailto:mailbox@host.com which your technique won't hide. You're better off setting up a dummy mailbox with slopsbox. |
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Post by Art Vandelay on Sept 11, 2009 1:17:05 GMT -5
I can't stop giggling at the fact that he's setting up a website so he "can be taken seriously as an author", and yet is proposing and elaborate trap involving rickrolls to get rid of bots...
Yep, you'll be taken super-serial with a website like that!
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Post by sugarfreejazz on Sept 11, 2009 1:44:42 GMT -5
Web site 101 don't make people work to get information or navigate a site. They'll drop off instantly.
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Post by Mantorok on Sept 11, 2009 2:03:43 GMT -5
Way more complicated than necessary. Just put the address as an image instead of text, that should deal with the bots. This isn't very good advice either, don't you realise why captchas are so hard to read? It's because bots can process images. The best bet is to have another mailbox to filter out the inevitable spam. |
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Mordeak
Junior Member
Official Filthiest Frood of FSTDT (and he forgot his towel!)
Narf
Posts: 87
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Post by Mordeak on Sept 11, 2009 6:43:19 GMT -5
I use javascript to fool spam bots. I create a form without a button and use css to make a div look like one. The form will only be sent if the user clicks that div and normal form submission is disabled.
If you want to stay ahead of spam bots, never use mailto links. Hide your mailing logic and force your user to contact you using a form instead of his/her mail program.
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Post by Vidi The Mostly Hatless on Sept 11, 2009 13:05:08 GMT -5
One site I go to says to write your email address but not put the @ symbol in it, so that you'd write it out like: "example (at) adomain (dot) com" or similar. It works well for the site and as long as you have a passing familiarity with email, but for those who aren't, it can be confusing.
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King Leopard
Full Member
The ORIGINAL douche canoe
Posts: 201
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Post by King Leopard on Sept 11, 2009 19:25:59 GMT -5
I think there's no better way to get people to give up on e-mailing you before finding the correct link.
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