[JDEV] Emoticons: guidelines

[Dave]

Yeah, somehow, I was expecting you to say something along those lines.
The same can be done with Web pages (and in fact _is_ done with Web
pages), and I see nothing wrong with it for a variety of reasons,
including two interesting ones that don't really apply to Web browsers:

1) Many clients will automatically download the images whether or not
you read the messages, so they can have the messages ready for display
as soon as you decide to view them.

2) Text-only clients (and clients with images turned off, etc.) won't
be downloading the images even if you _do_ view the pages.

Obviously, all the standard tricks that Web browsers can use to defend
against this sort of stuff can also be applied, but because of the nature
of IM, there are certain major factors working against the SPAMmer.

 - Dave


Michael Brown wrote:
> 
> 
> > Okay, now before you read my response to a previous message (which
> > answers all your concerns), can anybody come up with any more problems
> > with the HTML IMG tag approach?  That was certainly a rather major salvo
> > of bashing you folks put up ;-P
> >
> >  - Dave
> 
> Yes, it effectively allows spammers to see if someone has read their
> message.  They simply place a unique 1x1 pixel emoticon in each message
> sent, and see if the webserver ever receives a request for it, and if it
> does, they send you more spam.  ;-)
> 
> Michael.
> 
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