MHonArc Users, A recent message to the user's list has raised a question about hiding/masking/obscuring addresses for the list archives.
I am personally against such techniques since the archives help provide an open discussion forum. As has been observed by others, mail archives (of any type of project or topic, not just MHonArc) also help non-subscribers and their ability to contact list members to help solve problems. And with the case of the mhonarc.org list archives, hiding addresses will disable some archive features like access to raw mail messages and author-based searching. With that said, the cost of receiving spam can be high for many, and it is reasonable to assume that some users choose not to post to a mhonarc.org list to avoid making their address public (hence, defeating the use of having such a list). Therefore, I am taking a poll to see if the nature of the mhonarc.org mail archives should be changed. And the poll is not a simple, "yes, hide addresses, or no, do not hide them." I am also open to suggestions and ideas in between. For example, obfsucation that does not completely hide an address (javascript techniques are not acceptable). And I will take time to see if there are methods of protecting addresses that minimizes the usage impact of the mail archives. Feel free to respond to the list or to me via private mail with your comments, --ewh