Show HN: MailRubber, a condom for your email address | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: MailRubber, a condom for your email address

mailrubber.me

23 pointssourceless22 comments

I use http://scr.im/ for this, and quite unlike something that advertises itself as a "condom for your email address," it has cute ladybugs instead.

Cool, the angle I'm planning to go for is the one Nikolas0 mentioned - an API and plugins so that it can be integrated into things like blogs and forums easily.

If you're looking for wide appeal, the name seems unnecessarily risqué.

Perhaps, I guess I'll find out

I think the name's great. I'll definitely remember it, and it's not obviously risque.

This has existed for years: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/

And your email isn't stored but rather encrypted and the ciphertext passed via the url.

http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01eHy-6e8CKpz-d...

k is your id and c is the ciphertext the key is stored on their server.

Before anyone goes down the "omg scr.im is so easy to brute force" route: yes -- by design.

I wanted a very simple tool to easily share email addresses that would defeat dumb mail harvesters, not a cyber bunker with undecypherable recaptcha crap that would annoy the hell out of users. Plus, yes, ladybug :)

Pretty cool idea. Was hoping it would instead spit out an obfuscated or dummy email address I could use on forms and signups which would proxy (perhaps for a limited time only) to my real email address.

Ooh, that's something to consider... thanks!

I've been using spamgourmet.com for years. It's saved me 100,000's of spam emails.

Are spam filters really that bad? I've had my email address in plain sight for well over a decade - no munging or similar tricks, even using a mailto url - and my domain is a catchall. Spamassassin plus RBL works just fine for me.

My personal gmail is around 8 years old IIRC and similarly I really don't see any spam or false positives there either.

What are the people who are so concerned about this problem doing that results in them getting spam that isn't caught by filtering systems?

"Removes the need for munging"

with a more complicated process. I've never found a "munged" email address hard to read. Also, how do they have to prove they're human? That would be good to see on the splash page.

Noted, thanks

Interesting idea. Maybe you should also add some API too or even plugins for popular blogging and forum software.

That's next on my list - starting with a JSON api, maybe I'll make a gem.

And here I was thinking I'd be able to order condoms via email! Neat app.

Why stop at email?

`$ send_condoms --amount 2 --size normal`

I guess the next evolutionary step is to 3D print them on demand? (quick, someone get me a patent application form)

Awesome unique value proposition. Well done! :-)

Creative condoms! Cool concept, clean creation.

Thanks!

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