I’m trying to figure out how to implement a system similar to Gumtree, Craigslist or eBay where email addresses between buyers and sellers are hidden/made anonymous/obfuscated.
I have a wordpress website. I’ve not had any luck so far, can someone point me in the right direction?
This is quite possible with back-end scripting and databases. A database would store user details, like id, username and email, but visitors would not have access to it all.
The site could have a link saying “Send Message to LR500” which opens a message form. On submission of the form, a back-end script mails the message to that user’s email without the sending user ever seeing the address. Not unlike a regular site contact form, only the recipient is a site user with an account recorded in the database rather than a site admin/owner.
Though I expect you are looking for a ready made plugin for WP that does this.
Even searching for this method in Google has been difficult to find relevant information. The website already has a contact form in place and everyone who uses it has an account already. So that’s one step of the way there.
A plugin would be ideal.
A website that offers a rerouting service would also work I imagine.
Any idea how this system is refferred to/what is called?
on forums it seems to often be called ‘direct messaging’ same as on facebook. You aren’t actually sending an email as @SamA74 says you are just entering the information a table and only allowing the tagged recipient to view it on a page (or you could email out from your server without revealing the email address of the sender).