Dear Mike--
I strongly agree that we do not want to have anonymous postings achieved. I
was thinking about a technical possibility to "distort" addresses enough
that spammers' automatic searches won't pick them up but humans can read the
email addresses without a problem. The automatic spammer searches for email
addresses tuned up for the email format like xxxx@kkkk.lll.nnnn It will be
nice if there is a technical possibility to transform all our addresses
archived by the system on the publicly available website into a different
format like xxxx_AT_kkkk.lll.nnn (or something like that). Humans can easily
reconstruct the correct email format (with an appropriate instruction added)
while spammers' automatic searches will miss the addresses entirely. Again I
do not know if it is technically possible but it is worth to check with a
specialist who will improve xmca infrastructure.
What do you think?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Cole [mailto:mcole@weber.ucsd.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:46 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: working to improve the infrastructure
>
> Hi Eugene-- I will ask the programmer who is working on the site if we
> can screen names. Since the archive is publically available and email
> addresses turn up there, I cannot see what advantage there is to making
> the entire list anonymous.
>
> I guess if we cannot be public to each other, it may well be time to
> close down xmca, so lets hope there is a techical fix. I am already
> troubled by the extent to which xmca is a spectator activity -- for
> example.
> some 35 people asked for a discussion of the Arievitch article, but only
> a couple of messages about the article have been posted. Voting is
> anonymous, posting is not.
>
> I worry about the suggestion of posting publications on the template
> we are planning to institute for a related reason. It appears that some
> people are intimidated by the fact that there are faculty posting, or
> if they are already faculty members, that there are more senior faculty
> members posting, or........ whatever makes people think that rank matters
> in this forum thereby ensuring that rank matters.
>
> I share your concerns about spam and even more the extent to which my
> emails are hijacked and turned into spam and virus carriers. But, as I
> said in the opening, if that concern is general, time to get off email
> and close shop.
>
> What do you think?
> mike
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