On 1/31/06, Ryan Delaney <ryan.delaney(a)gmail.com> wrote: That's probably about right. As someone else suggested, the homepage may be more appropriate.

On 1/31/06, sannse <sannse(a)tiscali.co.uk> wrote: Do you process incoming email? I use a challenge-reponse method on the account I use for my Wikipedia userpage. This account on the other hand is used for mailing lists and uses the gmail spam filter. Some accounts that I used for other purposes are filtered using spamassassin on my home system. All three methods are very efficient. I have been contactable by internet email since 1995 and, with the exception of a brief experiment with my usenet address, lasting a few days, I have never had to mangle my email address. It is never necessary to mangle email addresses, and doing so makes you harder for people who want to contact you to do so.

I don't think he's asking whether or not people can post their OWN e-mail addresses on their OWN user pages (something which no one would oppose -- you do so at your own risk, of course); the question is whether Wikipedia articles should have the e-mail addresses of their SUBJECTS posted. Here's my take on it: Should they contain their post-office addresses too? Probably not, even if it is just a P.O. Box or some other address which is not a physical location of where they live. Of course, generic addresses (so-and-so lives in Washington, D.C.; so-and-so works in the Chamber of Commerce) are fine, but I don't think specific addresses are a good idea. Whatever the privacy issues, they are simply not fodder for an encyclopedia article. (I think in the case of political figures the privacy issues are minor, but I think it is also a bad habit to start. People *do* get touchy about addresses, even if they are technically in the public domain, like yellow and white pages.) I think it is better to link to their homepage on the web -- if they want people writing to them by e-mail or any other methods, they will post that information themselves. People who want that sort of information will be able to find it without Wikipedia's help. If they can't find it without Wikipedia's help, it probably isn't something that belongs on Wikipedia in the first place (that is, it probably isn't meant to be accessible). FF On 1/31/06, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 1/31/06, Sam Fentress (Asbestos) <asbestos999(a)gmail.com> wrote: Shh, there are 1.6 million people who don't know that! Google for "at gmail dot com" :) Steve