User:Halfasspete/EmailSpam

As we all know, junk email (spam) is a growing problem.

Unscrupulous spammers have found numerous ways to collect email addresses, in order to send out solicitations and other junk.

One of the easiest methods for doing this is using programs that look on web pages for email addresses.

Since the Wiki is on the web, email addresses posted on the Wiki are vulnerable to being "harvested" by spammers.

So, please do not post email addresses anywhere on the wiki.

exceptions

There will of course be exceptions, but they will hopefully be very few.

Free Geek public addresses

Free Geek has addresses @freegeek.org that are intended for public use. It's understood that some spam will come in, and it is dealt with. It's fine to post these addresses.

• info@...
• outreach@...

contact info that will be widely needed at Free Geek

If there's another option for keeping an address, best to use that. If not, obscure the address.

• many people use the convention johndoe at johnscompany dot com (or similar.) This is NOT recommended, as it's pretty easy for programs to figure these conventions out.
• I prefer the following: johndoe@johnscomp__y.com Leave a couple of underscores replacing letters that it will be easy for a human to figure out, and fill in.

This page should describe the procedure people should use on the wiki, without going into a ton of detail. I also want to make a separate page with more background and detail. Pete