[SGVLUG] How fast spam spiders work.

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Michael Proctor-Smith
> 
> Truefully when I originally started talking about the spiders I was
> trying to point out to Tom that there is no reason to put
> sgvlug at sgvlug.net on the website(Especially with a mailto:) sense the
> list is member only. Just the link to the sign up page.

Aha!!!  why didn't you say so in the first place?

For the most part, that is "boilerplate" that has been copied from our site in it's original form.  Very little has been done over time to ensure it is clean/clear, proper HTML, makes sense, and so on.  I think the last (cosmetic) change I made was to point out that this is the "submission" address, but now that I look at it I see that I took that out after all.

Does it need to be there?  depends -- on one hand, it's quite useful for people who have a habit of "replying to an existing message just to get the submission address" (and therefore changing the entire subject, but retaining the "old" thread ID, meaning it may get overlooked by users who thread messages).  Depending on the browser you use and the "integration" with other programs, savvy users can use this to populate their address book.

the counter argument, of course, is that when you DO sign up, you are sent one [often ignored] message telling you this is the address you should now save as the submission address [well, that and the "here's where to sign up" link also gives that information]

<doh>
I just looked at the sign up page and it has exactly the same thing as the front page:

   "to post a message... <mailto: link>"

so even if I didn't include it on the front page, a spider would have traversed the "sign up here" link and found it anyway [especially since it isn't obfuscated AND this is a dynamically created page to begin with...]
</doh>