Captcha on Signups
May 15th, 2007I’ve added my captcha to the registration form, as most of the users registering were computers. Also, for the same reason, I’ve banned all @mail.ru email addresses, as those are only used by spambots (and Hellsheep). Registered uses still don’t need to complete the captcha when they log in or when they post a comment. They need only complete it once, during signup.
Lastly, I deleted all the users I thought might be computers, so if your account has vanished, sorry but that’s where it went, and feel free to recreate it.
I don’t expect you to care much but I feel it’s best to record these things.
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7 Responses to “Captcha on Signups”
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May 16th, 2007 at 12:48
Incidentally, some spambots seem to be slipping through the guest-post captcha, so either they can add up or they can type a letter a number of times. Does anyone have any ideas for a similar question I could ask of them? I’d like it to be text-based, and I need it to have exactly one answer, so say “type ‘gfD’ backwards” would be okay (it’s a bit like the “Mental Agility” round, isn’t it?), but “type any four letter word” would not.
“Name an impotence combating drug” would be about the worst possible suggestion.
May 16th, 2007 at 16:22
I suggest you put a picture of one of the Mr Men and the question is “Which Mr Man is this?”
That would work perfectly.
May 16th, 2007 at 20:57
You should use those IQ-test logical thinking type questions:
Scissors is to zebra as cheese is to what?
(Answer: kettledrum.)
May 16th, 2007 at 22:46
I could add an IQ test to stop idiots posting comments. That would kill the Dave Hitt page stone dead.
May 20th, 2007 at 17:15
I’ve fixed a bug in the Captcha, as well as adding a “please enter this meaningless string of letters backwards” test. I think the bug (whereby it would sometimes ask you to enter an empty string multiple times, which even a spambot can manage) is what was causing the spam to slip through, although I’ve added a thing to email me the captcha answer every time a “spam” comment is detected, so I’ll know for sure soon enough.
Really, in that case, I’m just adding extra types of questions for my own perverse amusement and to keep you lot on your toes. So please feel free to suggest more.
May 22nd, 2007 at 16:02
It seems that the spam bots have learned to add up. That’s okay; I’ll delete that question.
(The great thing about my spam-protection system is that I can just delete questions that the spambots can answer and insert new questions extremely easily. So “add these numbers” is out, and may be replaced with a harder maths-ey question, or maybe I’ll just stick to the two letters ones I already have.)
May 26th, 2007 at 14:53
Well, I’ve not had a single spam comment since I removed that question, so my theory works.