Spamming
is unsolicited bulk email. Recipients of spam often
consider it an unwanted intrusion. Internet service
providers (ISPs) consider spam to be a financial
drain and an impediment to Internet access because
it can clog available bandwidth.
NEVER allow your email address to be
visible to members of forums, chat rooms and
other similar online groups. Spammers use web spiders,
programs that search the content of the Internet, to
gather email addresses. Most good online groups are
set up to keep your email address hidden.
NEVER spell out your email address as
html text on your website. Web spiders can
easily recognize the text as an email
address. As an alternative to making your email address visible
on your website do one or more of the following:
Best: Use FORMS rather than
email links for your website's
visitors to submit information to
you.
Use only FrontPage or php
to create these forms. Do not use a cgi/perl
script such as formmail as it is
insecure and will leave your website
open to hacking. For instructions on how
to create a secure
form click here.
Better than nothing:
Incorporate your email address into a
graphic and then create an image map
hyperlink for the email address.
Better than nothing: Add your
email as a hyperlink
to the words 'email us.'
Spotlight
How Did Spam Get Its Name?
The name Spamming derives from the Monty Python Spam sketch
about a diner which specializes in dishes made from SPAM brand
processed meat, where at one point four Viking patrons in the
diner began singing praises about SPAM which violently drowns
out the normal dialogue in the sketch, hence SPAMming the
dialogue.
