Captcha for signups [Done]

[mibi]

Concise description:

• CC should place a captcha on the home page sifnup form

Specifics:

• uh, get a good captcha, like re-captcha, and make it a requirement of the signup

This will improve the following aspects of the site:

• It will reduce the number of spam bots that signup and post spam in the forums
• it will reduce the number of other nefarious bots that just signup on every form on the net, taking up usernames, as well as server resources.

[slowreactor]

Considering that I just saw a spambot , that would actually be a great idea.

[Woodruff]

Concise description:

• CC should place a captcha on the home page sifnup form

Specifics:

• uh, get a good captcha, like re-captcha, and make it a requirement of the signup

This will improve the following aspects of the site:

• It will reduce the number of spam bots that signup and post spam in the forums
• it will reduce the number of other nefarious bots that just signup on every form on the net, taking up usernames, as well as server resources.

What's a captcha...is that the "numbers that have to be manually entered to match what's on the screen" thing? If so, they use that for e-tickets already, so it should be easy to implement.

[wcaclimbing]

What's a captcha...is that the "numbers that have to be manually entered to match what's on the screen" thing? If so, they use that for e-tickets already, so it should be easy to implement.

That is correct.

[the.killing.44]

Good idea. http://www.conquerclub.com/eticket/captcha.php

.44

[e_i_pi]

The whole annoyance-bot thing is a double-whammy at the moment. Not only are captcha-recognising bots better, but there's also a rash of real 'users' from China who are creating accounts for heavens knows what purpose on phpBB3 forums. I'm having to delete a fake user about once a week on my forums, and my site barely rates on the register

[Woodruff]

The whole annoyance-bot thing is a double-whammy at the moment. Not only are captcha-recognising bots better, but there's also a rash of real 'users' from China who are creating accounts for heavens knows what purpose on phpBB3 forums. I'm having to delete a fake user about once a week on my forums, and my site barely rates on the register

Out of curiousity, how are you able to determine what is a "fake user" and what is a "legitimate user"?

[e_i_pi]

The whole annoyance-bot thing is a double-whammy at the moment. Not only are captcha-recognising bots better, but there's also a rash of real 'users' from China who are creating accounts for heavens knows what purpose on phpBB3 forums. I'm having to delete a fake user about once a week on my forums, and my site barely rates on the register

Out of curiousity, how are you able to determine what is a "fake user" and what is a "legitimate user"?

Well, when they sign up from a Chinese mail server, and login from Moldova, then spam the site with this message...

sdfhjghjs
sdfhjghjs
sdfhjghjs
sdfhjghjs
sdfhjghjs

...in every single thread, you can pretty safely assume they are a fake user.

[wcaclimbing]

The whole annoyance-bot thing is a double-whammy at the moment. Not only are captcha-recognising bots better, but there's also a rash of real 'users' from China who are creating accounts for heavens knows what purpose on phpBB3 forums. I'm having to delete a fake user about once a week on my forums, and my site barely rates on the register

Out of curiousity, how are you able to determine what is a "fake user" and what is a "legitimate user"?

Or when they come in, set their 'website' as an advertisement, and post huge text walls with nothing but links to viagra websites, you can be pretty sure they're not legitimate users.

[e_i_pi]

What the hell is viagra? You're spelling it wrong wca, it's "v1agra".

[4myGod]

I left some forums up for about a year, nobody knew about it... I went back a year later and there was a couple thousand users and millions of posts. Porn, viagra, penis enlargers, breast enlargers. I hit the jackpot.

[AndyDufresne]

Lack is currently doing some updating inregards spambots, so we'll see how well that works first.


--Andy

[Woodruff]

Lack is currently doing some updating inregards spambots, so we'll see how well that works first.

But if it's already being used on the site (for e-tickets), wouldn't it be perfectly simple to use the same code for the new users?

[lackattack]

As e_i_pi said, it seems most of these spam accounts are in fact humans - if they can click an activation email link they could definitely complete a captcha.

The good news is that I just finished coding our Anti-Spam Bot today. It should intercept any advertising spam and immediately website ban the user (permanently ).

Unfortunately I can't reveal the logic here for the spammers might see how to get around it!

[Kotaro]

Thanks Lack !

[Strife]

As e_i_pi said, it seems most of these spam accounts are in fact humans - if they can click an activation email link they could definitely complete a captcha.

The good news is that I just finished coding our Anti-Spam Bot today. It should intercept any advertising spam and immediately website ban the user (permanently ).

Unfortunately I can't reveal the logic here for the spammers might see how to get around it!

Code: Select all

if (ip != lackattack) {
   accountStatus = banned;
}