Robert E Wilhelm, Jr
~ Contact The Site Owner
~
Robert E Wilhelm, Jr
Sorry to have to put you though a bit of a diversion to send me an email however the amount of junk mail or "spam" (technically defined as "unsolicited commercial emails" or UCE) I receive as a result of having this website has increased to the point that I am forced to provide indirect access to the email address for the site. I provide this website at my own expense however there are those that exploit my generosity by hijacking my email address and using it for their own purposes ~ generally the sending of spam and malicious viruses, worms, and trojan scrips. If you'd like a link to see who the worst spammers are on the planet then please visit http://www.spamhaus.org/
The host computers for my website filter my incoming email messages for spam but this is a low level parsing. After this initial review I still receive literally hundreds of spam messages a day. My personal second level of defense starts with my computer where I have programs that not only filter the spam but also filter incoming internet communications for viruses, spyware, and other attacks. While my anti-spam software filters out even more messages some get through.
My email program also includes the ability to filter spam and even with this third layer of defense I still get a dozen or more spam messages in my IN email basket every day. What is worse is that my email address is used by others as a way to send spam making it look as though I created the message! Unfortunately the spamer lobbyists and freedom of speech organizations have greatly slowed any national "do not spam" listing or similar legislation to stem the increasing amount of unwanted spam.
One of the ways email addresses can be "harvested" from websites is through the use of "spider" or "crawler" programs often known as "spambots". These programs systematically visit internet websites and search every page of the site for anything that resembles an email address. For simplicity all email address take the form of "name@host". Whenever the spambot finds text on a website that fits the format of an email address it harvests the address for the owner of the spambot software. That email address is now available to not only send spam to that email address but to use as an email source for sending spam.
Since I want to hear from web site visitors I must include an email address. However, in so doing I provide spamers access to my email IN box and email address. The recommended way to address the problem is to provide instructions as to how to construct an email address and not to provide the email address directly. With this in mind you can contact me using one of the two following methods.
If you have Java-scripting enabled on your computer, there is a way that I can encode my email address so that the spambots are less likely to find it easily but you still have the address available to simply click on it. By clicking on my email address shown below it will be automatically placed in the TO: location of your email program. Note that the email address below will execute a Java script (a short, safe program that runs on your computer) and thus requires that your computer have Java scripting permitted. This link will not work if for security reasons you have Java scripting not permitted on your computer.
If you don't have Javascript enabled for security reasons please follow these directions to create my email address in your email program. All email addresses are of the form 1 @ 2.3 . For my email address the 2 and 3 are the name of this website. Thus "2" is equal to "stanleymotorcarriage" while "3" is "com". The 1 is "Model735". Thus if you take "1", add the "at" sign (@), and then add "2" after the "at" sign followed by a period (.) and finally "3" you'll have my email address (no spaces in the email address)!
To insure that your email message receives prompt attention please start the subject line with "Website Comment". I sort emails by subject and make a point of responding to anyone who is writing regarding my website. I also have my security software set to discard any emails using the email address above that do not also have "Website Comment" in the subject line.
SPECIAL NOTE: On October 1, 2006 I deleted the old stanley735 email address that I had been using. The spam had grown to 25+ emails per day and I'd had enough so I've changed the address to what is shown above. Again, thanks in advance for your understanding.
Thank you for your understanding and most of all your cooperation! If you'd like to know the current status of governmental efforts to stem the constantly increasing amounts of spam and the use of private individual's email addresses to send unsolicited spam then visit the Federal Trade Commission's website: http://www.ftc.gov/spam/
