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Why do people still say name AT domain.com?

5 points by jmillerinc ↗ HN
I can't remember the last time I saw someone list their email address on a blog or home page as name@domain.com.

Are spam bots still fooled by name AT domain.com?

Or is it for some other reason?

And Gmail seems to be so good at filtering out spam anyway, what's the point of hiding?

17 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 45.5 ms ] thread
nuxi7
Not everyone uses gmail...
donohoe
Those that spell it out do not necessary do it all the same way. I've seen:

jim[at]domain.com

jim( a.t.] domain.com

jim THE WORD AT HERE domain.com

etc. etc.

It might all be for a lost cause but if there is a slim chance at obfuscation it costs them nothing to try.

xenophanes
It does have a cost. Humans can't just copy/paste it and hit send.
weaksauce
I like the javascript solution because humans can just copy and paste while most bots are not that sophisticated to parse and run the javascript yet.
jolan
Because they don't know how to do this:

<a href="javascript:location='mailto:\u006a\u006f\u006c\u0061\u006e\u0040\u0067\u006f\u0072\u006D\u0073\u0062\u0079\u002e\u0063\u006f\u006d';void%200">email me</a>

stefanobernardi
In plain text I use name @t domain d0t com while on my blog and websites I use a simple js script: <SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript"> <!-- // protected email script by Joe Maller // JavaScripts available at http://www.joemaller.com // this script is free to use and distribute // but please credit me and/or link to my site

emailE='domain.com' emailE=('name' + '@' + emailE) document.write('or <A href="mailto:' + emailE + '">email me</a>.')

//--> </script>

<NOSCRIPT> <em>Email address protected by JavaScript.<BR> Please enable JavaScript to contact me.</em> </NOSCRIPT>

underdesign
Really? I need javascript to contact you? Too bad! You lost a potential customer!
jedsmith
I guess it's to each their own, but I just cannot understand running with Javascript disabled. Especially with all the sites that rely on Ajax-like technologies and such...maybe it's just me?

I think by disabling Javascript for yourself, you're missing out on a lot of the modern Web.

stefanobernardi
Exactly, if you're not running JS then you're not my audience, as if you're running on IE.
fr0man
I get a good deal of spam from any unfiltered accounts I post as name@domain.com. In fact the only Nigerian scams I ever received came from doing that. name[AT]domain.com is an easy way to prevent some of that for someone (e.g. a non-technical person doing a blog) without the javascript obfuscation code handy, or else without the know-how to use it.
felideon
People don't realize there are better ways than that. Also, if they need to enter their e-mail address somewhere they can't insert CSS or JavaScript and aren't sure if it is going to be properly obfuscated when rendered, the only way is to plain text obfuscate it.

By the way, here is a blog post from 2008: http://techblog.tilllate.com/2008/07/20/ten-methods-to-obfus...

corin_
My email address and phone number get listed by google in a tonne of press releases anyway, luckily my company's servers are decent at filtering out spam
agscala
The worst is when people use forum's [spoiler] tags to hide their email, as if the bot is LOOKING at the page! haha
natfriedman
I've listed my email address as nat@nat.org on my web page for years and gmail only lets in a few spam a day. I tweet it regularly too, and I'm not drowning in spam. I don't think there's any point in continuing to do this. From my perspective, spam is a problem Google solved for me.
damienkatz
I remember reading somewhere that simple email obfuscation can result in more spam, as advanced bots look for obfuscated emails specifically because they are more likely to be an actively checked account. Also more advanced bot operations are more likely to send clever spam to get past your filters.
andre3k1
I freely give my email address out, but change it every year to avoid spam.

my system is to use the current year...

i.e. currentyear@mydomain.com so, 2010@ycombinator.com

zbanks
I've done something with javascript that I'm pretty happy with:

http://olopede.com/contact/

Basically, if you have JS turned off, you get "team (.AT.) olopede.com"

But, with JS (which most people have), you get the correct form of the email, plus a mailto: link.