email addresses for chat purposes

[zimzam]

I am suggesting we have a sub section whereby people can leave a contact IM - posting details only and with no answers. Like (for example) Ummmmm is blah-blah@ blah de blah; zimzam is [email protected] so on, and because of bots that trawl fhe internet for addresses to send junk mail to we give our address in a slightly changed format to consider this and protect ourselves. I would be paws4thoughts (at) hotmail(dot) com......note the change from @ to (at) ? that saves the bots and subsequent spamming in our emails. The reason is that someone often wants to contact a member direct. Not to take a question or an answer off forum but simply to chat inconsequential crap to a fellow AB member. If there was a topic where members could post and leave their contact addresses or refer it if they wanted to be contacted it would be handy. It would work providing no ABer took a fight off forum or an answer off forum. ABers providing addresses don't have to accept a name so if Fred and George have their IM contact addresses noted and Fred and George have a fight and Fred tries to contact George then George does not have to accept Fred to chat to..........are you all following me here? I am paws4thoughts(at) hotmail (dot) com and I would love to chat to someone - as a friend - not to answer a question privately that all AB members may be following and not to have an argument off line.

[VINNY100_2]

erm..so you are [email protected] to fool the bots you are paws4thoughts(at)hotmail(dot)com...ey..! There never suss that one out..surely,you dont have to use your usual E.mail address,and if fred sends you an E.mail and you dont want to respond..dont..!nope,okay,I give in..Im getting confuzzled here..!erm..sorry if ive got the wrong end of the stick....must go...matrons coming>>>>>>>(:O)

[notfrom-oz]

my boyfriend used to talk to marton.
i never got to see here?
small world huh?

[VINNY100_2]

Shouldnt you be filling your holes in notfrom-oz....ooops..here comes yer boyfriend..(:O)

[zimzam]

ok Vinny let me explain. I have 3 IM addresses. It is a well known fact that bots trawl the website and pick up on IM addresses and inconsequence it leaves the person wide open to receive spam. To get round this you slightly change your IM address, so if you were vinny@hotmail com you could give your address as vinny(at)hotmail(dot)com and not end up getting spammed. So taking this further, supposing you knew my IM address and wanted to contact me then I could accept it - but if you were always arguing with me on AB I don't need to accept your name do I?
I am simply suggesting that posters have a topic where they can post an email address and it is up to fellow ABers or the poster to accept that addres to chat to off forum, but not to follow any probable tnames hrough privately for answers and leave ABers in limbo never seeing a reply to read or comment on. Take this a step further - when asking on IM to contact a person you have to give a coment and its easy to state "I'm Joanne and am on AB known as Bert" and its up to the individual to then accept a known name if they want to . All I suggest is that some of us post our IM address or secondary address so if a few want to contact a member forum we can do so. So all I can say is that if anyone wants to chat to me off forum that they add paws4thoughts(at)hotmail (dot) com and when contacting me and as their IM addy may be different to what I recognise on AB simply to state your known AB name,

[ummmm1]

They tend to do it in body & soul

Spam goes straight to junk mail which goes straight in the bin.

[ummmm1]

here you go zimzam

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Q uestion332224.html

[zimzam]

Oh thanks for the link ummmm, I missed that when it was first posted.