Note to hosts...

[thenewkid]

 

Newt has spoken AND the fat lady has sung!

 

Millie Med. Cruise

[mango14217]

Now That Walt, Laura. Ann and most important Newt have spoken and the Fat lady sang lets drop It.

 

[flagger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Host Walt:

 

By the way, don't even think a harvester has the time and energy to click through each profile manually to jot down emails. It must be automated to be cost effective.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Actually there are automated harvesters that do nothing go through forums and posts. With unlimited email addresses available I have set up several "test" email addys that I only use on certain websites. eg. cruisecritic@myweburl.net or farkforums@myweburl.net I can then see and track how many spam hits I am getting or being harvested just by putting it in my signature or in my post. I also do the same thing to test certain e-tailers privacy policies against reality. eg. amazon@myweburl.net I can always delete the email accounts when it gets overwhelmed so spam just gets bounced into the ether.

 

The spam harvesters are even getting more sophisticated to strip out the _NOSPAM_ from something like _NOSPAM_flagger@myweburl.net or even look for the @ sign or even convert /at/ to the @ sign.

 

A couple of ways currently to fool harvesters:

 

1. Put your email address in reverse order e.g. myweburl.net@flagger

 

2. Have you signature appear as an image file and not text

 

3. Use free email accounts and just move onto the next one when it gets overwhelmed by spam.

 

4. Use different variations of spelling out your email with the NOSPAM indication including using umlats or weird characters as part of it e.g. N0sp@M_ or N()SP%M_ or NOSPÄM_

 

Hope this info helps someone.

 

"People don't know there's such a thing as recreational defibrillation" - Walter Becker on NPR

[Rustynail]

Flagger,

 

I can't believe I'm saying this but I think that is the best advise you have ever given.

 

R.

 

 

CARRIBEAN PRINCESS JAN 2005

 

CARNIVAL'S LEGEND JAN 2003

CELEBRITY'S CENTURY DEC 2003

[flagger]

Well besides dressing in jeans and never tipping and my daughter my other passion is thwarting spammers.

 

"People don't know there's such a thing as recreational defibrillation" - Walter Becker on NPR

[nealberk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by flagger:

 

Actually there are automated harvesters that do nothing go through forums and posts. With unlimited email addresses available I have set up several "test" email addys that I only use on certain websites. eg. cruisecritic@myweburl.net or farkforums@myweburl.net I can then see and track how many spam hits I am getting or being harvested just by putting it in my signature or in my post. I also do the same thing to test certain e-tailers privacy policies against reality. eg. amazon@myweburl.net I can always delete the email accounts when it gets overwhelmed so spam just gets bounced into the ether.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

I could not agree more with Flagger on this one. Of course, you can do many things to confuse the harvesters; things that normal people would understand but smart computers would not. For example, one of my email addresses is me@wherever.com. The harvester will see that one but will totally miss the "Ime@whereverI.com (drop the I's from the address to get the correct one)" with the manual directive to the reader. Any user instructions will totally annoy the harvesting programs. Another trick is toreplace a common character with a look alike special character mē@wherever.com. In this case the reader can see theletter "e" but the harvester will see the special character. You can view the special characters in Windows by calling up the character map program and cutting and pasting.

 

Onto my soapbox for a minute. Spam is a problem and the spammers are getting smarter and smarter. I never give out my primary addresses to public places since one harvest of my address means that everyone will get it. Everything we do to keep spamming to a minimum is a point in our favor (In fact, there are web sites that contain a hidden page reachable by code by not reachable to normal people that contains nothing but trash e-mail addresses. The approach being used is to pollute the quality of e-mail lists making it more difficult for spammers to get valid addresses.) Let's not make it any easier than we have to.

[usha]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by thenewkid:

http://images.animfactory.com/animations/people_m_z/singer/viking_woman_singing_md_wht.gif

 

Newt has spoken AND the fat lady has sung!

 

http://www.regalweb.co.uk/loony/animated/wine.gif

Millie Med. Cruise

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2003;7;10;15;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100 <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll have you know that I've slimmed down considerably!

[brn2crz]

Another choice is to put it(your e-mail) in the space provided for your Instant Messaging" name.Most do not use this space.Thats what alot on the RCI board are doing.

 

Cathy

NCL-Starward 1982

NCL-Seaward 1986

NCL-Norway 1992

Carnival-Celebration 1996

Carnival-Jubilee 2001

RCI-Rhapsody 1999

RCI-Rhapsody- 2003

Grand Princess or Rhapsody ?

2004

 

 

[wolfganghowell]

Ok, I have to go to the hospital. Ya'll made newt post a serious message and that always makes me upset. And flagger made sense.

 

usha - yes you have lost weight.

 

Roll end credits.

 

Century 99-00

Rhapsody 11/00

Rhapsody 10/01

Infinity 2/02

Millennium 11/02

Millennium 11/03

Rhapsody 11/04

[newtocc]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Host Anne:

I don't think I can add anything else but thanks, Newt! By the way....are you OK???

 

~Host Anne<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes Anne, I'm fine, how about you? I didn't post that, I wasn't even on the board last night, I'm going to get to the bottom of this, I don't care how many sessions it takes!

 

This ship 10/91

That ship 11/95

Whatever ship 12/98

here a ship 13/99

there a ship 14/00

everywhere

a

ship ship 15/05

 

<font size="3" color=red>Over 1 year</font> into my LMBO cruise

[cruiseclues]

I create special email addresses for websites to which I give my email. I have created one for Cruise Critic which has been in existence for several years. When I receive email addressed to that specific email, I know it is the one in my Cruise Critic profile. I get a lot of SPAM, even though much of it is filtered. I've only had a very few emails (maybe 3 in several years) from SPAMMERS addressed to my specially created Cruise Critic email, so it does not seem to be a problem from automated harvesting.

 

 

Happy Cruising, Buil, http://cruiseclues.com

Sitmar, RCCL, Costa, HAL, Princess, Royal Cruise Line, Celebrity, Renaissance, Disney, MSC Lirica

"We cannot change the direction of the wind... but we can adjust our sails"

[cruiseclues]

I forgot to mention. I'm not voting because we get most of our email from the ones we have on our website, so it doesn't matter to us.

 

 

Happy Cruising, Buil, http://cruiseclues.com

Sitmar, RCCL, Costa, HAL, Princess, Royal Cruise Line, Celebrity, Renaissance, Disney, MSC Lirica

"We cannot change the direction of the wind... but we can adjust our sails"

 

[safein]

Wolfgang,

 

I'm in complete agreement with you!!!!!! No wonder the weather has been screwy!!!!!!!! We agree this time with flagger, Newt's serious! I'm going to faint!

 

Anita

 

(PS Walt, I think you and Anne are very nice hosts!!!!! And Laura's great too!)

 

And now Infinity 2005!

Millennium 2003

Century 2002

Summit 2001

Century 2000

Zenith 1996

Horizon 1994

Horizon 1993

Sunward 1992

Star Princess 1990

Maxim Gorky 1974 & 1975