email form help needed (script

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Mitch

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
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Lincoln, NE USA
I took a dreamweaver web design class last fall and have finally posted the new pages. I am very happy with the update but have a problem with getting the the email form to work. My instructor, a designer not a programer gave me the script for the form but it doesn't work with my Host's server. I have done some research and am just getting confused. Can anyone explain just what I need and where I might find it? The instructor said I needed ASP Script not the PHP he knows. The previous web site had my email address on every page and I received so many great offers I didn't have time to visit the grumble as often as I would have liked.

The new site is: http//www.contemporaryartframer.com

thanks

Mitch
 
The old school way was to put a MAILTO: link on the site, and give it out. Unfortunately, this will attract spam like a magnet. Many folks use hotmail, gmail, etc so theyre unable to click these links anyways. (The links try to open the default email program, but aren't compatible with web based email systems) It's best to avoid the MAILTO: links when designing a web site; for these reasons.

This topic is a moving target, as the spammers are getting smarter all the time. If you had asked last week, I would have sent you to http://recaptcha.net/plugins/php/ Spammers now have the ability to crack this about 80% of the time, although it will still block most attempts.

All I am using is an extra check box, to make sure it is a human being. (with an old yet modified London Perl Mongers NMS script) This seems to do the trick, at least for now. The email address, of course, is hidden in external perl code - and not in the page itself.

If your email address was EVER on the page, you'll get spam forever. It may be easier to set up a new email alias and turn the old one off, once you find an effective way to keep it hidden.

Something else worthy of consideration is to activate SPAM ASSASSIN on your hosting account, or even forward it to a GMAIL address. Google's GMAIL has a very effective spam filter, and they take care of this problem before passing it on to your inbox.

There are a lot of conflicting opinions about this topic, if you search via google. The info changes often, so be prepared to do a lot of reading.

Best regards,
Mike

PS: The page looks great!
 
Until you get that set up I have done two things in the past. One is use "(a)" instead of "@" in your email address. I think the bots that harvest email addresses don't look at that as an email address. Second is post your email address as an image instead of text. Again programs can't see that as an email address but only a real live human.

I was going to show you an example on my page. But alas I have used text http://www.greatangles.com/aboutus . I'm not sure why but I get no junk mail yet. It may be comming but so far nothing. Maybe the spam filter is catching it.
 
Jay H said:
I'm not sure why but I get no junk mail yet. It may be comming but so far nothing. Maybe the spam filter is catching it.
Click to expand...

I didn't get any spam for about 2.5 years. About 6 months ago I started getting one or two a week. So far, it's not much higher than that. I do need to get my email address off the website one of these days.
 
I get some spam through but it is fairly easily worked around by setting up Outlook correctly for your regular email'ers.

I recently had a an issue with our website form and had to take it down - normally from that we were getting 2-3 enkwiries per week. With the change I put email addresses on the contact page and enkwiries are now 7-9 per week with many commenting on the fact that they much prefer to see the email address and hate forms.

I expect loads of spam (at times) before filters can be made to stop them, but for each lead generated I don't expect it will concern me greatly. There is no way I will put a form back on the site.
 
Very nice, clean site.

You can make the email address a link instead of actually putting it on the site. Link to mailto:yoursddress.com
 
Thats the same as putting it on the site. If your site is well ranked in the engines, that will be harvested in a heartbeat; resulting in dozens of spams per day.

The other problem is that the MAILTO: link only works for folks who use an actual email program, and not those who use the web for email.

Forms are the way to go, to make your email address anonymous. You just have to make sure you select a form that itself can't be exploited.

Mike
 
Hi all

I haven't been back to the grumble nor have I been able to do anything with the form yet. My internet provider has been down for the whole weekend.

The web site is hosted Brinkster.com and they emailed me this morning with the location of a script. Now I have to figure out how to use it and if it will work with my form.

Thanks,

Mitch
 
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