Protecting an email link

[nancylebov]

http://innerpeace.org/escrambler.shtml

is JavaScript which is supposed to protect email links from being harvested for spam. I've used it on the home page at my cafepress shop. The page for escrambler says that a few browsers won't be able to deal with the JavaScript, but they're a vanishingly small percentage. Is that true? Was there any other reason not to use escrambler? On the other side, is it just the thing anyone needs?

Comments

[madfilkentist]

There are still a fair number of people -- well under 1%, but not "vanishingly small," who use text-only browsers which don't use Javascript. There are other people, like me, who keep Javascript turned off by default and use NoScript or other means to turn it off when it's really needed and trusted.

There's no guarantee that spammers can't figure out a workaround for Javascript obfuscation; in some ways it's easier than conventional obfuscation, since the result of the Javascript processing is a well-formed email address.

If you use it, make sure that people without Javascript enabled can easily see that there's an address which they're missing.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

If you use it, make sure that people without Javascript enabled can easily see that there's an address which they're missing.

How?

[madfilkentist]

With a <noscript> tag. Whatever text you put between the opening and closing tags will appear only if scripting isn't enabled.

[avram]

But that will make it visible to the spam-harvesting robots, won't it? Thus defeating the entire purpose of the exercise?

(Also: Can you imagine going back in time and telling SF fans of the 1970s that in the future we'll be having serious discussions about the troubles we're having with "spam-harvesting robots"?)

[cellio]

Seconded. I turn off javascript by default, and any site that wants to use it has to pass the "oh really? do I trust you?" sniff test. (You'd be amazed how much third-party script sites serve up.) When I use email addresses on the web I just use text quasi-obfuscation instead (e.g. somebody -at- domain (dot) com).