[twstokes]

I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a website, and was wondering if you created a flash object that had a button to send e-mail to me, wouldn't that prevent any spiders from getting that address?

If not I was planning on using a form anyway, but I wanted to see if anyone knew if it was possible.

Thanks,

Tanner Stokes

[EnigmaX]

To the best of my knowledge spiders could index your flash file, as that's what they do, but the flash file itself would need to be ran through a decompiler before the information could even be viewed.

Very few people have the knowledge to do this, let alone search engine spiders.

Obviously depending on how your form submission is set up, I highly doubt anyone would have access to it, let alone spiders.

Do you have this posted somewhere? All in all, I would say your safe.

[twstokes]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't have it posted anywhere right now, but currently I am using a form.

I will probably keep the form on it's page, and I'm pretty sure it's secure.

As far as the flash file, I would like to have it on the homepage, possibly at the bottom of the screen so if someone needed to e-mail me all they would have to do is just click my e-mail address and their e-mail client would pop-up with my address in it.

I know a lot of people have stopped putting their e-mail addresses on their website due to spidering, and I was actually wondering why I haven't seen anyone use a dedicated flash file just for their e-mail address.

Is there something I'm missing about Flash files? I was under the impression (like you noted) that flash files would have to be decompiled = probably a big mess and hassle for a spider to do just to get one e-mail address.

Why don't we see anyone using Flash files on their websites (for their e-mail address)?

Thanks!

[EnigmaX]

Well I guess it all depends what kind of websites your looking at, or what "circle" of web design you involve yourself in.

Alot of the stuff I do, and the design community I participate in does a HUGE amount of Flash.

There are two basic ways for someone to e-mail you from your website. There's the "mail:to" function, which you described. This actually opens the user's e-mail client and "prefills" certian fields which you can dictate.

Ther other, which is what I use, is a PHP Form Mailer. This way, the user is NEVER prompted for their e-mail address, it doesn't involve their e-mail, nor their e-mail client. The PHP Code takes care of the "mail" functions.

This type is the kind of form you see on sites that often have a "Contact Us" section. A form where you fill in your name, whatever information they set it up for, and then a general box where you can type your question or whatever. When they hit submit, it e-mails the contents of the form to the webmaster.

This is my personal preferred method. If you would like a copy of the PHP Code, let me know. I have a bunch saved, and once you get the hang of how it works, you can customize it to include/exclude whatever information you want from the user.

[twstokes]

Thanks a lot for your reply.

The form I am currently using is a PHP form, and it sends an e-mail to me once someone has filled out their name, e-mail, etc. I really like this method of sending e-mail.

I will probably just stick to my PHP method just to keep things simple and organized. If I were to use the Flash method, people would be entering in their own Subjects, which could make things become sloppy.

Once again, thanks for your info.