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

[Earl Hood <earl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On January 2, 2004 at 16:00, Jeff Breidenbach wrote:

> >The image idea is nice since it is type of a Turing test, and the
> >image can be generated to give OCR systems trouble.
> 
> There is a research field devoted to exactly this topic. See
> http://www.parc.xerox.com/research/istl/projects/captcha/ Simson
> Garfinkle wrote a Technology Review article on the topic in June 2003,
> suggesting this is the express train towards an increasingly sad and
> dehumanizing future. I personally agree.

Interesting research.  I did not see any source code that one
can download in order to try out the algorithms.

> A lot of variables influence anti-spam choices, including:
> effectiveness of a technique against harvesting, the relationship of
> reducing harvesting vs reducing spam, cost and opportunity
> cost. There's outside factors, for example the possibility that it's
> all hopeless and email is generally doomed, and the possibility that
> new laws might stop the big spammers on ROSKO and turn the tide. 

And the factors of maintaining an open forum.  I have received
a private response in favor of not hiding address since the user
has had useful benefits on their archives in not doing so.

--ewh