Spammers vs new members

[Sir Ancelyn]

No robot could replace my geniussssssssssssssssssssssssssssss goto10_>

[Sir James A]

Well, I'm a new guy, and not a spammer, and am currently watching 'The Universe' while it snows here in Sparks, NV.

I hate being sick.

Welcome. Hope you're feeling better by now. Your avatar looks familiar, but I can't place the screenname, though I'm thinking armourarchive?

[Sir Edward]

I'm starting to worry that I may be deleting an occasional real new user, since it's not always obvious, and not everyone replies to emails quickly, etc. So I've added two new things:

First, a new CAPTCHA. In addition to the old one, this one has to be solved to set up a new account, and it involves rotating images around with slider controls. If you want to see it, log out and click on register. You don't have to complete the registration to just spin the pictures around.

Secondly, I've added instructions after the sign-up to preemptively email me and let me know you're real.

Hopefully this will make the process smoother for new forum members, and reduce the amount of wanton deletion I have to do.

[Sir James A]

There's a similar issue on another forum I'm on. We thought about adding something similar to the "google goggles" plugin, to have a few questions asked that have to be answered right when creating the account. Something simple that anyone registering would know, and wouldn't be prone to phrasing wrong (single answers).

Something like:

Who was the leader of the Knights of the Round Table? King: [enter answer here]
How many legs does a horse have? [single-digit box, if you can]

As long as that computer that was on Jeopardy isn't trying to register, it should trim down a lot of the botting, hopefully.

[Sir Edward]

Something like:

Who was the leader of the Knights of the Round Table? King: [enter answer here]
How many legs does a horse have? [single-digit box, if you can]

As long as that computer that was on Jeopardy isn't trying to register, it should trim down a lot of the botting, hopefully.

I just grabbed a mod to do this too (apparently last night a bot got through the new captcha, which could be random luck with a 1/512 chance). It looks like SMF 2.0 has this built in, but someone made a mod to add it to the 1.x line. It's out of date, but still patches in just fine. I even borrowed your questions here.

[Sir William]

Spammers...why don't they just join and expand their little minds?

[Sir Edward]

Well, I think it worked. I haven't seen a single bot sign up since adding those little questions.

[Sir Edward]

Well, I think it worked. I haven't seen a single bot sign up since adding those little questions.

I'm trying switching the forum back to self-activation for new members. That means they just have to click through on the email that the forum sends them to get activated. I still haven't had a single bot try to sign up since adding the sign-up questions, so we can give this a try again.

[Sir Edward]

I'm trying switching the forum back to self-activation for new members. That means they just have to click through on the email that the forum sends them to get activated. I still haven't had a single bot try to sign up since adding the sign-up questions, so we can give this a try again.

.... and now we're making changes again. Apparently adding all these methods of verifying that it's a real person is starting to confuse people. The last two people to try to sign up haven't been able to complete the registration for some reason. It always works when I test it though.

So. I took out the "spin the pictures to be upright" thing, and am using a slightly weaker CAPTCHA that's easier to read. The "trivia" questions thing is still there. So until we see whether or not the spam-bots can figure this out, we're back to manual approval of new members.

[Sir Edward]

...and now another spammer made it through. Wow. Making changes again.

[Lord Tristin]

I am grateful for your acceptance of my desire to join the forum. I Look forward to learning form you all and sharing what I might know with you.

[Rhydderch]

Ditto what Lord Tristan said....

[B. Patricius]

+3 on what Lord Tristan said Sir Edward, thanks for seeing I'm not a bot.  And I believe ANY and ALL measures to get by bots are well worth it on the receiving end as a new member.  It just shows you (this forum, or others like it) really care about your forum and who posts here.  Also, the anti-bot things that I went through here were by far the most thorough I have ever been through.  I hope they're doing a good job.  I actually got a kick out of the "spinner" anti-bot test  had me a bit cross-eyed to begin with!

beyond that, Sir Edward, is there any way you can post up what anti-bot procedures those are, like what they're called and such.  I'm on another forum, for the Adrian Empire, that's just really kicked up, and they're getting spammed like crazy, by the worst of kinds to where I'm scared my two-year old sees an accidental thread I go to!    Any help with that would be greatly appreciated!

thanks again Sir Edward, this is a great community

[Sir Edward]

They're just variations on a CAPTCHA. The spinners are part of a mod that I downloaded. But believe it or not, I think the most effective anti-spammer feature is the "20 questions" game. Just stupid little questions that require you to understand the sentence. I had added a version of that via a mod in the previous version of the forum software, and it cut out about 90% of the spammers. The newer forum software has that feature built in.

Between all of it, we only get a spammer through it once every few months.  The required email catches those.

[B. Patricius]

Awesome.    Thank you for giving me that information Sir Edward.  Now, may I ask is it okay if I hyperlink to this topic thread in the new Adrian Empire forums?  I figure that may be the best way for them to see what's been done here, as I believe it's working rather well.

YIS
B. Patricius