I find that (spamprotected) mailto tags are relevant because its convenient for the user (just one click) and they have a record of the sent email. I don't like the alternatives; plaintext(needs to be copy pasted), or phpform that send a copy to the user for archive (incoming, should be outgoing) Also I like the fact that an email sent from the user can act as a proof of identity. With forms you always have to send an opt-in to make sure the sender is the real owner of the email.
Now I need a fallback for when the mailto doesn't work (no new email window opens); webmail or very old email browser. I know its up to the user to make sure his browser is set to open the correct email webclient. But still want to offer a solution for uninformed users.
As discussed here, I could go to a list of webemail clients, pretty much like social bookmarking. Any readymade, not confusing solution out there?
Or maybe I can send an email through google's smtp (using swiftmailer php) at the same time when opening the email window? So I have backups. For the user he just submitted a form, if an email window popped up, when he closes it sees, thanks for your message, If no windows popped up, he sees the same. Unfortunately this defeats the idea of having no load on my server by using only static pages and clientside processign only (sure there is no safe way to use smtp with JS?) Any good workflows for that solutions out there?