The contact details were completely clear:

Hopkinson add @uniname.ac.uk

Well, I say 'completely clear'. The only logical way to read this is that the bloke's e-mail is 'hopkinson@uniname.ac.uk'. I have changed the surname to avoid embarrassing the individual concerned and the university name to avoid embarrassing Essex.

But although that's the logical way to read this, the nagging doubt remains: why does it not say that then? Is this a code? Have I deciphered it right? Other variants include additional brackets or spaces, replacing '@' with 'at' or even sticking the word 'REMOVE' into the middle of the address. It goes without saying that any such e-mail address will not be a link.

Certain departments at Leicester are just as guilty of such lunacy. These are all, of course, anti-spam measures. They are also, of course, completely and utterly pointless.

Spam is not a major problem. Not for most of the millions of people who use the internet. In fact for most people it's not a problem at all. we don't even notice it. It is why God gave us the spam filter.

I don't know how spam filters work, nor do I care. Nor do I really understand how my washing machine works. I put dry, mucky clothes in; I put the liquid into a little tray at the top; I turn it on. Some time later, after lots of noise and movement, my clothes are clean and wet and non-soapy. Thank you Herr Bosch.

Everybody gets a bit of spam, just like everybody gets a bit of junk mail. but you wouldn't disguise your address to avoid junk mail, would you?

Change of address
Pam and Dave have recently moved to:
12+13-5 [Church Drive]
MeltonREMOVEMowbray
scieL (reverse)
L E 1 7 8 F B

That would be ridiculous. And would not be accepted on any form designed to provide you with a passport or driving license. Or any form at all, frankly.

Just like you get used to slinging the odd bit of junk mail in the bin, so you get use to identifying the occasional message as spam and deleting it. Once you have done that, your spam filter will automatically delete anything from that same address or which looks the same. Requests to transfer money from Nigeria, offers to grow another three inches and satisfy her all night, advertisements for directories of medical practitioners across America (I only started getting those after I began working in the NHS, but I got them on my home e-mail...). If somebody could invent a similar device that fitted onto letterboxes, they would become a millionaire overnight.

Here's the nub: disguising your e-mail address does NOTHING - absolutely NOTHING - to prevent spam. Because if you are a professional or an academic, then your e-mail address is already widespread across the web. Go on, Google it. Google your own e-mail address and you'll find it in dozens of places, quite possibly on other pages within your own organisation's website. Whatever the little cyber-spider things are that harvest e-mail addresses from the web and then provide them to the widows of West African Prime Ministers (a surprisingly large sector of society), they have already found your address. Dozens of times over.

Horse. Bolting. Stable door. Geddit?

There are two - and only two - effects of disguising your e-mail address on a webpage. One is that it makes you look like a numpty, like someone who doesn't understand the web or e-mail or anything invented after about 1985. The sort of person who has only just got past the stage of reading out URLs as, "It's H, two Ps, T, then a colon, then two oblique lines..."

It makes you look like someone who won't go paddling on a nice summer day because "the sea looks cold."

The other effect is that it annoys people who you don't want to annoy. Potential customers, potential business partners, in fact anyone who wants to contact you. Because rather than just clicking a link which opens up an e-mail window, you want these people to open up their e-mail, open a new message and type in your e-mail address. And e-mail addresses usually have between 20 and 30 characters.

Your anti-spam effort sends the message: My fear of spam is more important to me than whatever you have to say.

And also: I am a numpty.