http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/ If you look after truth and goodness, beauty looks after herself Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:02:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/comment-page-1/#comment-503 spyder Sat, 28 Jan 2006 11:24:00 +0000 http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/#comment-503 Kermit, yeah good point. Not many ways around screenscraping and I guess the term "spam blocker" is really a misnomer. I think of it like the club on a car though, thieves can still steal your car if they really want to, the idea is to get them to just go for somebody else's in the parking lot. In the same respect, less spammers use a screen scrapper than a standard regular expression search through HTML for an email address. Once a blocker / etc becomes widely used though it starts to become ineffective proportionally. Take for example a pop-up blocker that is a feature of the most common browser toolbar: what is the first thing spammers are checking their pop-up up on? That toolbar. But if it's not widely used, there's less a chance they bothered to see if it blocks it. Kermit, yeah good point. Not many ways around screenscraping and I guess the term “spam blocker” is really a misnomer. I think of it like the club on a car though, thieves can still steal your car if they really want to, the idea is to get them to just go for somebody else’s in the parking lot. In the same respect, less spammers use a screen scrapper than a standard regular expression search through HTML for an email address. Once a blocker / etc becomes widely used though it starts to become ineffective proportionally. Take for example a pop-up blocker that is a feature of the most common browser toolbar: what is the first thing spammers are checking their pop-up up on? That toolbar. But if it’s not widely used, there’s less a chance they bothered to see if it blocks it.

]]> http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/comment-page-1/#comment-502 bucky Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:32:58 +0000 http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/#comment-502 yeah I find it almost best to either hide it via css with text-indent:-999em and setting the background image or just hexencode it which seems to work okay for now. Thanks for the util. yeah I find it almost best to either hide it via css with text-indent:-999em and setting the background image or just hexencode it which seems to work okay for now. Thanks for the util.

]]> http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/comment-page-1/#comment-501 kermit Sat, 28 Jan 2006 07:51:51 +0000 http://www.thebusypixel.com/2006/01/27/blocking-spam-before-it-hits-the-inbox/#comment-501 Nifty. Nice add. I here about solutions like this alot, but then at the same time, I wonder how much "screen scraping" is used rather than the HTML source. We have a screen scraper app at work, so I know its possible. Nifty. Nice add. I here about solutions like this alot, but then at the same time, I wonder how much “screen scraping” is used rather than the HTML source. We have a screen scraper app at work, so I know its possible.

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