Possibly solution to avoid spambots

[quanthero]

Of course, math problems should be not as simple as 2*5 + 1, but more like "Solve equation 'x squared - 4 = 0' and enter your answers (separated by space)". Also, equations must be stored as image file (not html) with some distortion added to it.

[Darlis]

Images with or without distortion are not more effective than plain text. This forum is a very good example. Solving math problems seems to be very uncommon because just about 1-7 spambots manage to register on my forum per month. Without the question it would be over 100.

I'm using math because it's a language everyone can speak. Instead you could use a "question" like 'Type "MyDefrag" in the text box'.

[BloodySword]

I think a good solution would be OpenID oder how it's called. They have complicated Capt'chas and you can use your Google account for exsample to log in to the forum.

[Nobodo]

Something I have used successfully on a number of websites is to have hidden input elements on the 'create new user' page and also on the 'login' page.  Give the hidden elements standard names and ids like 'UserID', 'Password', 'Comment', etc.  The real elements (the visible ones; the ones that count) are given obscure names.  The actual users of the website don't see the name/id of the element; they only see the text label you hang on the element.  Bots see the name/id.

In the code for these pages, if the hidden input elements have text in them, the submission is rejected.

Bots will fill out the hidden elements; real users cannot.  I have no bot spam at all from using this technique, and don't have to annoy site users with captcha or other nonsense like that.

Thanks,
Mark.

[ff_mfg]

meanwhile spam-bots started to advertise math tutoring, lol

[manjulagupta]

Put the forum under moderation

[Keatah]

Captcha being useless?? I thought these were good things that actually worked.
Why not have a mini-captcha or simple question to answer at the end of each posting? Surely that would make a spambot error out..?

Don't tell me that spambots are reading captchas and working the little math problems?

Some other forums I visit have it that you need to type the answer of the program's author.
Another one displays 5 basic shapes in different colors, and you have to say what color the triangle is for example. These can be set up like icons on the right side, or directly below the "post" or "save" buttons or something.

[BloodySword]

In china, there are work farms with people on PCs to solve captchas that a script did not solve. Sad, but true.

[Nobodo]

In china, there are work farms with people on PCs to solve captchas that a script did not solve. Sad, but true.

If you're going to make a claim like that, you really should include a reference.

[BloodySword]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=captcha+solving+china

First hit.

[dtfinch]

To break the bots, I'd try changing the post form a little. Like adding a hidden field that's only set in mousemove or keypress events, maybe to a timestamp or the php session_id(), and adding a server side check to require that the field was set properly.

[BloodySword]

But wouldn't this mean that the whole forum software must be customized to do that obfuscating?

[anon44]

• You should always use the latest version of your forum software. Updating SMF is quite easy through the admin interface
• We use "Stop Spammer", which works very good.

[thosthos]

Whatever the solution, it is obvious that you have to do something. Otherwise your forum is just a mess of pointless chat and advertising that nobody visits for longer than 10 seconds. Since Jeroen is clearly too busy to do it, I suggests that he gives senior contributors moderator privileges, allowing them to delete obvious spam. This would be pointless without something to minimise spam in the first place. Requiring posters to answer a silly, unpredictable question, like "how many legs have two men", seems to work fairly well. Moderators could also change the question; I suggest consulting another moderator first! A system something like this is adopted by several commercial software companies I use and seems to work well. However, I have no idea what else, if anything, they do.

[Pepto]

Spambots post to all the forums. Create a forum that will auto-block any user posting to it. Real users should be intelligent enough to stay away.

http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=20502