Comment Email Dilema
I wonder if people use the email addresses that are left here in my comments for anything besides spam? I've gotten some comments/emails that this site is being actively harvested for email address to send viruses and spam to. Spam, actually, I can deal with but viruses make me want to kill someone.
I can just wack the email addresses (easiest solution) or try to do some sort of random email-insert-No-Spam trick, but that's more work and messes with search engines (the pages look like they're constantly changing). But going back to the core of why the email addresses are there in the first place, they are left to let myself and other commenters find each other. I'm *sure* they were used for the Verizon Bluetooth thing, for example, but is that enough?
Should it be *my* responsibility to protect *your* email address that you leave on a public forum? I use russ@russellbeattie.com everywhere and deal with the deluge of spam. That's the cost, otherwise the system would break and I'd have 30 email addresses to maintain. This has been my opinion up till now (i.e. its your responsibility), and I've also been responsive enough to erase email messages when someone sends me a note that says "Oops, I left my work address," or whatever. But the liberal in me wants to protect the dumb and the innocent... so what do you think?
I don't feel like doing an elaborate bot-fooling thing. So the question is do I leave the emails displayed or not?
-Russ