I use the question/answer spam filter technique on my community blog site, but provide the answers with the question. For example:
Is a banana yellow or red? What colour is the summer sky - green or blue? What is 3 + 1? Is it 823, 4 or 9117? That way people can make a guess even if they aren't sure of the answer. So far we've done well at keeping automated spam out of the system as (so far) spambots don't know about this technique or aren't sophisticated enough to parse the answer out. Plus there's the opportunity to put a smile on people's faces with a slightly cheeky question ;0) Chris -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike at Green-Beast.com Sent: 13 February 2007 20:57 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WSG] OT? - spam in forms Hello Andrew, You're right about the language possibly causing a usability barrier. I guess the best way around that is to use math, i.e, 1+1=, since that's more international. The default Q&A out of the box is "Is fire hot or cold?" I figured that one might be known by many people, even those with cognitive disabilities since they are taught that "Fire is hot!" at a young age. I have tested the form for some people in other countries, though, and I usually manage to figure it out... sometimes having to determine the Latin root of the words if it's a romantic language :-) I could probably remove that whole thing and get away with it; there are 15 other anti-spam/anti-exploit measures in play with the script. I didn't take any chances though since those spammers can be pretty clever and I don't fully understand the bag of tricks they dig into. I erred on the side of caution. Cheers. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Ingram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 2:21 PM Subject: Re: [WSG] OT? - spam in forms Mike, I've been suggesting the Question/Answer method to people for some time and it's definitely my preferred method. It's so brilliantly simple yet nobody really seems to use it. I guess there's a language issue that might need addressing, but it's definitely an improvement on images. - Andrew Ingram Mike at Green-Beast.com wrote: > Hello Bob, > > This should solve your problem: > > Stand-alone version: > http://green-beast.com/blog/?page_id=71 > Demo: http://green-beast.com/gbcf/ > > WordPress plugin version: > http://green-beast.com/blog/?page_id=136 > Demo: http://green-beast.com/blog/?page_id=135 > > Both are standards-compliant and accessible... and they seem to work > rather > well based on feedback and my own experiences with using them. > > > Respectfully, > Mike Cherim > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Designer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 1:06 PM > Subject: [WSG] OT? - spam in forms > > > I seem to be going through a spate of getting spam in a form on one of > my sites (the one in the link, below, actually.) > > So I tried using PHP to randomly display an image and getting the form > user to input what it says. > > I still get spam! I'm presuming that this is because the spammer will > work with javascript turned off, making the js checkform routine useless? > > Sorry if this is OT - can anyone point me to a solution? > > Thanks for any help . . . > ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
