vBulletin has a link to send an email message to members who have opted to allow it, through a web form that doesn't disclose the user's email address. Something similar to this would be ideal.

__________________
Annorax
DCI Level 1 Judge

Besides, if you can't check someone's email address on the memberlist, how will you know that the person emailing you about a trade is the MOTL member they claim to be?

Just use a special MOTL account so that all the spam goes to that instead of your work/school email. That's what my hotmail account is for.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

"Between that promise and the reality, there is an ocean. That ocean is called the Liberal Party." (Duceppe)

Glitch-Banned/Unbanned 18/03/06

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Only members can access the list. It's good enough for me. Spam gets sent to the spam folder.

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Banned members seem to find a way to sign right back up.

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Besides, if you can't check someone's email address on the memberlist, how will you know that the person emailing you about a trade is the MOTL member they claim to be?

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Would one of those mail icons instead of just having their email address there work? If you want to check to see if he's the guy he claims to be, just click that mail icon to see if the mailto is to the correct email address.

Each person's ref list also has their email address in pretty big letters, btw.

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Just use a special MOTL account so that all the spam goes to that instead of your work/school email. That's what my hotmail account is for.

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why change an entire feature because of 1 or 2 people.

besides this, whats to stop said spammer from from clicking the little email link above a post.

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Originally posted by Bagbokk:

Would one of those mail icons instead of just having their email address there work? If you want to check to see if he's the guy he claims to be, just click that mail icon to see if the mailto is to the correct email address.

Workarounds shouldn't have to be used if something can be done to prevent spam emails from happening in the first place, though. Not to say that isn't a valid solution, just not one that we should have to resort to using.

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If the address is visible in the mailto link, then it's available to be harvested. If it's not available, then it can't be checked to verify that someone emailing you is really who they say they are. Either way, it's less than ideal.

There's a careful balance between making email addresses hard to be gathered for spamming purposes and keeping them accessible for valid uses. Personally, I haven't received a single spam email from MOTL in months, so that would suggest that there isn't a mass-harvest going on. If someone's willing to go address-by-address now, I don't think that an extra step to email MOTLers is going to make that much of a difference.

Spam is a part of being on the internet. We all just have to learn to live with it.

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Email from me will be from nderdogmotl<at>gmail.com. My profile address is a forwarder.

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Originally posted by nderdog:
If the address is visible in the mailto link, then it's available to be harvested. If it's not available, then it can't be checked to verify that someone emailing you is really who they say they are. Either way, it's less than ideal.

There's a careful balance between making email addresses hard to be gathered for spamming purposes and keeping them accessible for valid uses. Personally, I haven't received a single spam email from MOTL in months, so that would suggest that there isn't a mass-harvest going on. If someone's willing to go address-by-address now, I don't think that an extra step to email MOTLers is going to make that much of a difference.

Spam is a part of being on the internet. We all just have to learn to live with it.

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This is why I suggested a form that sends a message to the receiving member, from an automated MOTL email and with the sender's registered email as the reply-to address. If the receiving member wants you to have their email, they'll reply to the message. vBulletin comes with this feature standard, which suggests that it wouldn't be the most difficult change to create and implement on UBB.

__________________
Annorax
DCI Level 1 Judge

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Originally posted by teroknorevents:
This is why I suggested a form that sends a message to the receiving member, from an automated MOTL email and with the sender's registered email as the reply-to address. If the receiving member wants you to have their email, they'll reply to the message. vBulletin comes with this feature standard, which suggests that it wouldn't be the most difficult change to create and implement on UBB.

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Originally posted by teroknorevents:
This is why I suggested a form that sends a message to the receiving member, from an automated MOTL email and with the sender's registered email as the reply-to address. If the receiving member wants you to have their email, they'll reply to the message. vBulletin comes with this feature standard, which suggests that it wouldn't be the most difficult change to create and implement on UBB.

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Yes, but as I pointed out, if the address is completely hidden, it can't be used to verify the email address to make sure that an email sent is actually from who they claim to be.

__________________
The Playset Collection Project

Report rules violations.

Email from me will be from nderdogmotl<at>gmail.com. My profile address is a forwarder.

Again, I'm not so sure that MOTL is being used for harvesting--I've yet to receive spam from him that I know of.

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Originally posted by Bagbokk:
Workarounds shouldn't have to be used if something can be done to prevent spam emails from happening in the first place, though. Not to say that isn't a valid solution, just not one that we should have to resort to using.

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As I said, when you sign up for bulletin boards and stuff online, you generally shouldn't be using your work/school email anyway.

Besides, using a hotmail account instead of a work or school account is much less of a "workaround" than a significant change to MOTL, and probably much more effective. While banned members can sign up whenever, they can also click an icon whenever. If their spam goes straight to a junk folder in a secondary account, it's a lot more effective.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me."
-T.S. Eliot

"Between that promise and the reality, there is an ocean. That ocean is called the Liberal Party." (Duceppe)

Glitch-Banned/Unbanned 18/03/06

FYI - The changes may take a day or two to show up on reference lists, but should be viewable throughout most of the rest of the site already.

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As I said, when you sign up for bulletin boards and stuff online, you generally shouldn't be using your work/school email anyway.

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Originally posted by bigbob585:
the best thing to do is just hide your email address in your profile. it's still attached to your account but then again most people have either email notification on or only give their email out when finalizing. I've been doing this and haven't gotten one spam email.

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Yeah, but I do none of that, and still don't get spam emails. Hiding your email address in your profile just makes it harder for people to find out if you're really who you say you are when emailing trade confirmation and whatnot.

With Leshrac's change, this shouldn't really be necessary.

__________________
The Playset Collection Project

Report rules violations.

Email from me will be from nderdogmotl<at>gmail.com. My profile address is a forwarder.

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Originally posted by ronandaggy:
one of the main reasons i dont like this suggestion is that occasionaly i want to email a member whom hasnt posted in ages(hence i cant find a post by them and cant click the email tab). sure i could hunt for a post but its so much easier and quicker to look on the member list.

why change an entire feature because of 1 or 2 people.

besides this, whats to stop said spammer from from clicking the little email link above a post.

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why change an entire feature because of 1 or 2 people.