[seqfan] Re: Email addresses

[Rick Shepherd]

Yes, this is technically possible and better, in my view, to have the names
as the active links.  Although I believe that Charles Greathouse's ideas are
also good (regarding setting up user accounts, etc.), I know that simplicity
is often a deciding factor in making such decisions, at least for the short
haul.

One other solution could be, for those who don't have or want a home page
(to be mentioned in the OEIS), for the "First M. Last" name to link to an
"e-file" submitted and processed in the same manner as a-files and b-files
are done now.  eLastMFirst.txt or eLastMFirst.jpg (or .whatever) could be
displayed when the author (editor, programmer, commenter, and/or etc.) name
is clicked-on.  Then the responsibility of how much or how little to obscure
the e-mail address could be left to the creator of the e-file.  Also, by
leaving this to the individual contributor, a "one-rule-fits-all" approach
-- the current approach (with "(AT)") but also the kind in practice most
likely to be figured out by a bot or its programmer -- is no longer needed.
(The .txt or .jpg file could potentially contain other related contact info,
depending upon Neil's and AT&T's own requirements.).  By default, a sequence
submission could generate an eLastMFirst.txt file containing the e-mail
address in the current "(AT)" format -- if no eLastMFirst.* file currently
exists.  This approach can eliminate the clutter of e-mail addresses
appearing multiple times in the same entry, eliminate having one's old and
new e-mail addresses in the
OEIS at the same time (as I still do in A001045, A085632, and A085633) --
and also eliminate difficulties of the type mentioned below.

Currently if one wants to find sequences about, say, "prisms", but doesn't
necessarily want ones where "prism-of-spirals" is mentioned in the home page
links, one needs to remember or find this search command (after the initial
search unexpectedly finds thousands of matches):

prism -link:prism-of-spirals  (I just found out about -link this afternoon)

[However, doing this could result in losing some real matches to
prism-related sequences that happened to be touched by the owner of this
home page.]

(Not really meaning to pick on anyone's home page link in particular; this
one just happened to have a name where such a conflict is more likely.  I
first found out that normally-invisible text (i.e., the actual target of the
link) is searched by default when searching for my own last name once and
then finally figuring out that I was once getting a couple of matches on "
shepherd.edu" [in links which now appear dead, by the way]).

Rick

P.S.  In the cat-and-mouse game of hiding and finding e-mail addresses, I
believe there are probably large numbers of actual human beings collecting
large numbers of e-mail addresses for very small wages even as we speak.


On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 11:20 AM, Hans Havermann <pxp at rogers.com> wrote:

> Neil Sloane (27 Nov. 2008):
>
> <rls removed previous quotes>
>
> I was unaware of how Neil had implemented his home-page option until I
> looked at it just now. The email address is usually attached to a name
> in the author, comment, or formula fields. The home-page link however
> is *divorced* from the name and placed in the "links" field: Hence the
> confusion as to how that link might relate to the sequence. Wouldn't
> it be possible (and better) to hot-link the home-page (without
> explanation) right to the person's name (deleting the mentions in the
> "links" field)?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/
>