Simple Machines Community Forum

SMF Support => SMF 2.0.x Support => Topic started by: mj. on November 29, 2014, 11:25:01 PM

Title: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: mj. on November 29, 2014, 11:25:01 PM
This seems terribly easy, I did search for the answer but this isn't easy to query for.  I would like to provide a contact email address for my forum, and I would like it on the login page, where someone who is not a member and may not even care to be can find it.  Seems like something I would have stumbled over in the configuration in 2 years.  Hopefully I just can't see the forest for the trees.

Must I actually edit code to accomplish this?  Or does anyone have a suggestion that would not require manual work during upgrades?

Thanks
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Bruce the Shark on November 29, 2014, 11:28:14 PM
if your eager to display it why not embed it in the footer of the page so that everyone can see it.
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on November 30, 2014, 12:01:59 AM
This is something that's come up many times, especially in the context of  guests who have problems registering, and probably should be a basic admin option, but, no, there's no way in the core code to provide a contact link.  It's easy enough to add one with a mailto in the main menu (Subs.php), or anywhere on the main index (index.template.php).  Some people consider it a security risk to expose an email address on a forum or website, but I've done it many times and never had a problem.  If it makes you feel better, you can just set up a mail forward, and change it if it's abused.
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Arantor on November 30, 2014, 09:00:54 AM
I'd suggest the contact page mod.
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Kindred on November 30, 2014, 09:07:41 AM
Yeah, rather than add a menu item with a mail to link, which will result in 23 million spam messages, I would recommend one of the contact page mods as well.

Adding the admin email to the registration text could be done by adjusting the language string(s) in register.english.php (I think)
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: mj. on November 30, 2014, 09:29:04 AM
Ah, I never thought to look in the mods.  A contact page mod sounds like a reasonable way to go. Thanks!
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on November 30, 2014, 02:07:12 PM
Quote from: Kindred on November 30, 2014, 09:07:41 AM
a mail to link, which will result in 23 million spam messages

Oddly, that's never happened to me, and I've had mailto links on many websites and forums over 20 years or so I've had the same email address, and various forwards directed to that address.  Never had a spam or bot problem on any of my forums, either.  Sometimes I feel left out.  :(
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: ARG01 on November 30, 2014, 02:17:47 PM
Don't feel left out Krash, feel lucky. I don't list my email anywhere. However, within an hour of registering any new domain, I begin to get an average of 30 spam emails per day for about a month.  ???

Back on topic, imo it is never a good idea to have your email public on any forum. Unless of course, you love the spam.
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: mj. on November 30, 2014, 05:35:28 PM
I'll probably just go with a contact mod that allows a form to generate an email to me, rather than use a direct mailto link.  I was just looking for a non-custom solution for the 'difficulty registering' and other misc contact needs.  Strangely enough, sometimes folks want to contact you for various legitimate reasons, but aren't quite tech-savvy enough to know most domains have 'catch-all' forwards and they can just send to any address.  In the past I've had multiple non-members ask members to contact me on their behalf.  That just felt a bit silly.
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Arantor on November 30, 2014, 06:22:19 PM
You should see how much spam I got from my address being on GitHub :(
Title: Re: Provide forum email contact address to visitor - not logged in...
Post by: Black Tiger on November 30, 2014, 06:24:31 PM
I agree with Arantor. If you display your email address on a website and you got no or a little spam, it's just good luck.
It's better to use a contact mod.
And if you display it on a website, at least don't make it clickable and use something like "myaddress (at) domain dot com" or something like that. However even then there are enough spambots which can easily recognize that.