naim wrote:The whole point of the contact us page is to let anyone contact support in-case there is a problem with the site,
so if there would be a problem, wouldn't it effect the contact sheet to?!
And in phpBB there are no spam filters against spammers (at least no yet), so what if a spammer starts sending requests to the contact sheet?! Today most email addresses have spam filters...
The image is to protect against robots the don't have OCR.
If there is a problem that affects the *whole* site (if that's what you meant) neither a publicly available email nor a contact form will work. Unless the user had the admin contact info memorized they simply wouldn't be able to reach the admin until some level of service was restored.
The originally stated intent behind this RFC was to help solve for the following issue:
1.) Non-registered users contacting the admin (for boards where only registered users can do so)
2.) Registered users not being able to PM admins (again, where so configured)
3.) Contact with admins being possible to communicate DMCA notices
4.) Contact with admins being possible to communicate registration errors
5.) Contact with admins being possible to comply with local regulations
6.) phpBB receiving complaints in lieu of admin contact availability
7.) admin emails being posted in plaintext
To that end:
1.) A contact form would solve this
2.) Ditto
3.) Ditto
4.) Ditto
5.) Sort of*
6.) Sort of**
7.) Ditto
*Depends on whether local regs are something like "someone must have
some way to reach of you" or something like "you must post,
plainly, the contact information of the administrator.". While the latter is unlikely, I'm just bringing up the possibility that a contact form may or may not solve all problems in that area.
**Make something idiot proof and they'll make a better idiot... A contact form will
probably reduce phpBB contacts for this sort of thing. But it may help further to revise the powered by phpBB statement to instead point to a javascript pop-up or separate page on the forum that reads:
This forum powered by phpBB® Forum Software © by the phpBB Group. It is not however managed, administered or associated in any way with the phpBB development team nor does the team have any knowledge of or way to contact the administrators of this forum. Much in the same way that you would not contact a car manufacturer about an issue with the owners of a particular car, please do not contact the phpBB team with any problems, complaints, etc. with this specific forum.
Should you be interested in learning more about phpBB please click here.
Overall though the contact form should, with a few spam-limiting features like one-contact per day, provide enough protection for the admins that makes it worth it's while to implement. Especially because it removes their email addresses from any form of publication which is a great thing (coming from the admin of a board that would love to ensure his email never sees the light of day unless absolutely necessary).
