To reduce spam, would it be possible to disguise e-mail addresses on the department website?
You have probably seen other departments replacing the @ symbol with a different one, or inserting some words such as “NO SPAM” (see the previous question/answer for more on this), or displaying e-mail addresses as images instead of as text. Since others are doing this, you may think that this is an effective solution to the spam problem, and thus we too should be doing this. Unfortunately, disguising e-mail addresses does not solve the problem. Instead, it impacts legitimate users (who can no longer click on a link, or easily copy/paste an address), forcing them to manually type or manually edit the e-mail address, leading at a minimum to inconvenience but often also leading to mistakes and sometimes even lost messages. (If you send an e-mail to an incorrect yet legitimate address, the receiver may quietly delete the message. You’ll get no bounce message. You’ll never know the intended recipient did not receive your message. Furthermore, sensitive information may end up in the wrong h
