Re: Poll: Should mhonarc.org mail archives hide mail addresses

Gary Frederick <gary.frederick@xxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 02 Jan 2004 04:37:46 -0600

There should be ways to hide/mask/obscure.
and while I'm here:
XHTML and CSS is good. There will be more and more nifty things we can 
do as the technology matures.
I am looking at removing all email addresses.
  Joe Sixpack <js23221@xxxxxxx> => Joe Sixpack <address removed />
and would like to have a way that the address could be retrieved.

  ... Joe Sixpack <getjoesaddress@xxxxxxxxxxxx> ...

and a user could log into myserver.com and get Joe's address. That's not 
quite as convenient as leaving the email, but it does make sure that 
Joe's address is available but only to those that are authorized to have 
it. I am concerned that there will be issues with this, like privacy 
issues or being liable when someone gets an address.
Gary

Earl Hood wrote:
MHonArc Users,
A recent message to the user's list has raised a question about
hiding/masking/obscuring addresses for the list archives.
I am personally against such techniques since the archives help
provide an open discussion forum.  As has been observed by others,
mail archives (of any type of project or topic, not just MHonArc)
also help non-subscribers and their ability to contact list members
to help solve problems.  And with the case of the mhonarc.org list
archives, hiding addresses will disable some archive features like
access to raw mail messages and author-based searching.
With that said, the cost of receiving spam can be high for many,
and it is reasonable to assume that some users choose not to
post to a mhonarc.org list to avoid making their address public
(hence, defeating the use of having such a list).
Therefore, I am taking a poll to see if the nature of the mhonarc.org
mail archives should be changed.  And the poll is not a simple,
"yes, hide addresses, or no, do not hide them."  I am also open
to suggestions and ideas in between.  For example, obfsucation that
does not completely hide an address (javascript techniques are
not acceptable).  And I will take time to see if there are methods
of protecting addresses that minimizes the usage impact of the
mail archives.
Feel free to respond to the list or to me via private mail
with your comments,
--ewh