As FewMiles mentioned, I think we can have our cake and eat it too. If e-mails are allowed via the form method, the e-mail address is not made public for spammer consumption (the vCard, a separate option, does make it public, but I don't think spammers are harvesting from vcf files, though I could be wrong). The address is only revealed to the e-mail sender (from the form) once the recipient replies and 2-way communication has been privately established.

I like what FewMiles and mkincaid have suggested. Is it possible for FT techno wizards to implement it?

I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express. It appears to me that downloading .vcf info requires using these programs. FewMiles and mkincaid have proposed a much more direct solution that will allow me to use my existing email program to carry on communication after a response.

I guess I can't see why the wheel needs re-inventing. Those (like me) that choose to have their email addresses left public should be allowed to do so. The only victims of any possible "spam" are them.

Simple as that. Board software seems to allow this option.

Anyone me who CHOOSES to be only contacted via internal email can hopefully have that option. Board software supports that too from what I can see.

That path seems unwieldy to me, but agree as a last resort it is better than we have now, i.e. zippo. As posted, I prefer to have all emails on file, and making initial contact via FT does not acheive that end.

This isn't a good long-term solution, but the IM addresses are being displayed with your profile, so you could place your email address in one of those slots for access by others. Not a long term solution, but something to communicate your email without too much pain until FT hopefully opens it up for display again.

I mentioned this problem on 3 April (see below link), and in e-mails to Flyertalk, but to no avail.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=310159

Thanks to cblaisd for posting the warning, though.

Now, if they can just turn the e-mail back on, for those of us who can't always readily access Flyertalk, . . .

No answer from me or Dan because it's not a tech issue gang. It's a policy issue and we don't set policy.

Fair enough - thanks, John. Can you move this thread over to Randy's forum, then?

I agree; pls move this over to Only Randy Petersen so we can get this sorted out.

Right now some FTers are resorting to including their email addresses in their signatures so other FTers can reach them (and presumably someone could harvest), so that certainly defeats the purpose of not having email turned on/trying to prevent harvesting.

Agree.

It is really silly now that we might opt to have our email address showing, when in fact it is not if others go to access it.

And I know someone who turned his PM off & his email on (not realizing email is not working right now, which is probably the case w/ a lot of FTers) because he didn't want to have to go on FT (especially from the office) just to pick up messages & he checks his email all the time. He just found some Do organizers are trying to reach him because others saw they were & did have his email address from previously, but it shouldn't be dependent on something like that.

I didn't follow the technical details above, but if they're accurate & in the other thread I started about turning Vcard/email on, then I say let's implement them as it sounds like it solves both problems of having them accessible & also hidden.

Not being able to contact each other expeditiously just cost me hundreds of dollars by missing out on cheap fare. Most of us check our email each day or even throughout the day as some email systems are impetus driven and notify the user when each mail arrives. But we don't always check Flyertalk each day. Sometimes it is vital that we contact each other.

But there is a solution so that Randy can give us privacy and we can still send email to each other. Simply have the Flyertalk server send the email. It already does just that when we subscribe to threads. Just add an option (perhaps to Private message) that will send an email to the users email account on record (if they have one). Then the server will send the email and the person sending the email will not see the address. Then the person receiving the email can choose whether to treat it as spam or not. This option would also prevent a spammer from attacking our user database. Let me know if you need help with this.

Stimpy - there is an option available under My Flyertalk where you can request an email be sent out whenever a PM is sent to you. I have this turned on so I know to check FT for the message.

Hope this helps.

Yes, but that still requires then logging on to FT to get a PM, which is inconvenient & takes time.

Also, some folk are not allowed by their biznesses to access FT (other sites too; don't think the biznesses discriminate!) so they'd have to wait until they were somewhere where they could access it.

I'm lucky in that I have some FTers email addresses stored from before, but now have to go through the entire PM thing if I want to send a message to someone - and with a limit of 70, that's not great either.

And having email addresses available for those planning Dos is much easier.

If the FTer is ok with having his/her email address made visible, then that should be enough. If they're not, they can leave it off.

I hope Randy addresses this post-Freddies.

But Sharon, to play devils advocate, just because I want to display my email address to Flyertalkers doesn't mean I want spammers to get it. So the workable alternative is as I suggested above. Have the Flyertalk server send an email to my hidden registered address. That way I will get your message immediately on my own email server and you can't find out what my address is unless I choose to reply to your message. Of course the server will have to insert the registered address of the sender too.

Oh puhlezze - did you actually get thousands of email spams on FT before we went to the new system? No. There's an occasional one, & I & a heck of a lot others are willing to deal w/ that to not have to go through multiple steps to get a message. Having the same system as before is no big deal!!!

But having said that - I vote for (when Randy surfaces from post-Freddies) having the easiest method for us to access - for that, me means my having the ability to send a message (heck, I want IM capability! ) rather than going through multiple steps w/ PM & FT, but if he's got something else that works easily, I'm all ears.

I'm just glad I had email addresses stored for folk I talk to on a semi-regular basis from before. Right now I know the folk who are planning Dos (especially big ones) are ready to just kill themselves under the current method!!!! It's especially painful if you're planning Dos.