Crew Available: Important: Read Before Posting -- E-mail Addresses in Crew Positions Forum

[Dockhead]

Please do not post your email address in the clear. Spammers can easily harvest these addresses and deluge your mailbox with spam.

Our system usually catches such posts and puts them in the moderation queue. So if you ignore this advice, your post may not be published until the mods have a chance to edit it.

Please make initial contact with other members by PM. Exchanging email addresses by PM is safe.

If you must post your email address, at least redact it so it is not picked up automatically by spammers. So instead of joeblow@jobloco.com, you would post joeblow[at]jobloco[dot]com, or joeblow*at*jobloco*dot*com.

[sunmoon]

How do I remove it?

[noelex 77]

Email removed.

[brianstanfill]

I want to add some insight as a programmer but realize my word alone may not be enough to deter people from using this cryptic means to post an email address. The best advice above is to simply use PM to send someone your email address. Cyphering it can have the same negative impact as simply writing it out. Evidence:

Check out this Google site search.

1400+ results for this kind of email obfuscation on the cruisersforum.com domain alone. The same search in Google's index -- but this time not limited to the forum -- yields 164 million potential email addresses! An hour of programming will collect most of these addresses.

Here's an article explaining why.

Again, I recommend using the private message feature on the forum to protect your inbox from spam.

[maxingout]

It's hard to believe that email addresses are that valuable. Just a few years ago, email did not exist. Now email addresses are a commodity that are bought and sold.

Email addresses are an invitation to spammers and hackers to hijack your personal life and your assets.

It may be worth having an email address that you only use for forums.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by brianstanfill

I want to add some insight as a programmer but realize my word alone may not be enough to deter people from using this cryptic means to post an email address. The best advice above is to simply use PM to send someone your email address. Cyphering it can have the same negative impact as simply writing it out. Evidence:

Check out this Google site search.

1400+ results for this kind of email obfuscation on the cruisersforum.com domain alone. The same search in Google's index -- but this time not limited to the forum -- yields 164 million potential email addresses! An hour of programming will collect most of these addresses.

Here's an article explaining why.

Again, I recommend using the private message feature on the forum to protect your inbox from spam.

That is extremely valuable information. Thank you very much.

[avb3]

Originally Posted by brianstanfill

I want to add some insight as a programmer but realize my word alone may not be enough to deter people from using this cryptic means to post an email address. The best advice above is to simply use PM to send someone your email address. Cyphering it can have the same negative impact as simply writing it out. Evidence:

Check out this Google site search.

1400+ results for this kind of email obfuscation on the cruisersforum.com domain alone. The same search in Google's index -- but this time not limited to the forum -- yields 164 million potential email addresses! An hour of programming will collect most of these addresses.

Here's an article explaining why.

Again, I recommend using the private message feature on the forum to protect your inbox from spam.

Thanks for the post, this is good information.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

If you must post your email address, at least redact it so it is not picked up automatically by spammers. So instead of joeblow@jobloco.com, you would post joeblow[at]jobloco[dot]com, or joeblow*at*jobloco*dot*com.

Nope. 1. That kind of simple obfuscation is easily dealt with by harvesters with a regular expression (simple programming your average sixth grader can do). 2. Valid e-mail addresses are worth enough that people in some third world world countries sit in front of computers and type in addresses.

Just don't post them.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Nope. 1. That kind of simple obfuscation is easily dealt with by harvesters with a regular expression (simple programming your average sixth grader can do). 2. Valid e-mail addresses are worth enough that people in some third world world countries sit in front of computers and type in addresses.

Just don't post them.

Thank you. Another blow to our previous policy, which is now under discussion.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Thank you. Another blow to our previous policy, which is now under discussion.

I can send you a regex in Perl if it convinces you, or you can Google for it. It's been down in the script-kiddie realm for at least five years.

The 3rd world centers have been in mainstream media for a couple of years.

[dbw]

how do I remove the email address? Thanks

[avb3]

Originally Posted by dbw

how do I remove the email address? Thanks

Email removed as requested.

[brianstanfill]

Protecting one's email address is well known enough now that I would not invest considerable time and effort into protecting the ignorant. Some turnkey options for vBulletin include this email address obfuscator as well as this reCAPTCHA Mailhide plugin that is quite a bit better. The Mailhide plugin is better at hiding email addresses because it inconveniences the end user more. Convenience and security are always inversely related.

[francisco]

thanks you for the info, would also want to have my email removed if possible, as i saw this too late. thank you!

[David_Old_Jersey]

For public internet use I either use a one off e-mail address or my throwaway Yahoo e-mail address (going since 2003 - LOTS of spam!).