So, why do the email addresses on this website look strange and don't work properly? Why do the phone numbers have underscores (_) in them? The one-word answer: SPAM.
There are some nasty critters out there on the web, automated sniffing systems which look on websites for email addresses and phone numbers. They're simple, most of them, they just look for "@" characters, and strings of numbers that look like phone numbers. When they find one, they look a little more carefully to see if there is real contact information present. When the answer is yes, they store the information away. Later, they use it to spam you, or they sell it to someone who will.
As a result, our email addresses are "encrypted" with respect to these simple spamming address filtering programs, using, of course, an "encryption algorithm" that you, as a human, can easily decipher. Just replace the silly characters with the "@" and dot ("."). Similarly, you can easily read and use the phone numbers even though they look a bit odd.
Example email address:
If you find
Hope that helps. (By the way, if you're interested in the syntax rules behind mail, they're on the web in two RFC (Request for Comments - the internet's standards mechanism) items: RFC 821, RFC 822. Also see this email history.)
| home | webmaster |