Anti-Spam Post CAPTCHA

[lazer]

Just thunkin' out loud here....shut me down if this already exists.

How about a really simple add-on that forces a new poster to enter a CAPTCHA response, prior to posting a new thread or when replying to an existing thread.

• Make use of the existing board CAPTCHA system - whichever is being used
• Usergroup permissions, so only enable it for new members, for example

This would prevent automated SPAM if you choose not to implement any other anti-spam prevention on your registration page, or if you have members who give their login details over to automated posting systems.

 

[Chris D]

There are much more effective methods that block registrations in the first place.

My registration form timer add-on (free) is blocking probably 99% of spam registrations. The other 1% can be caught by other add-ons. Tenants released FoolBotHoneyPot which for a minute cost which so far seems to be blocking 100% of spam registrations and includes similar functionality to my free add-on plus much more.

There's no reason not to implement a registration based blocking system, and members giving their login details to automated systems is extremely rare and therefore not a big deal to resolve IF it happens.

The problem with your suggestion is you're then tarring legitimate members with the same brush. You're letting these spam bots through, only to block/slow them down from posting... but you're also slowing and potentially blocking (many people struggle with CAPTCHAs) perfectly legitimate posters.

 

[lazer]

My registration form timer add-on (free) is blocking probably 99% of spam registrations.

Yup. http://xenforo.com/community/threads/spammers-suck.41290/

Ok..as I said, just thunkin' out loud.

 

[Chris D]

Yup. http://xenforo.com/community/threads/spammers-suck.41290/

Ok..as I said, just thunkin' out loud.

Oh yeah... I forgot you suggested that

 

[MagnusB]

Just thunkin' out loud here....shut me down if this already exists.

How about a really simple add-on that forces a new poster to enter a CAPTCHA response, prior to posting a new thread or when replying to an existing thread.

• Make use of the existing board CAPTCHA system - whichever is being used
• Usergroup permissions, so only enable it for new members, for example

This would prevent automatedSPAM if you choose not to implement any other anti-spam prevention on your registration page, or if you have members who give their login details over to automated posting systems.

I am just curious, why would you have CAPTCHA on every post instead of just once during registration? I would think it would be much better to have the user only go through this once, instead of every time they want to post?

Members loosing their account is rare, at least in my experience. My guess is that participation would drop if users had to jump through hoops to post. Some even find post count limitations confusing.

 

[lazer]

I am just curious, why would you have CAPTCHA on every post instead of just once during registration? I would think it would be much better to have the user only go through this once, instead of every time they want to post?

Members loosing their account is rare, at least in my experience. My guess is that participation would drop if users had to jump through hoops to post. Some even find post count limitations confusing.

1. Prevent automated bots from posting - human registrations are regularly handed over to auto-posters - rendering any "anti-bot" registration detection useless
2. As I suggested it, the "restriction" would have only lasted for a few (or even the very first) posts

I actually saw this being used on a very large Tech forum (vB) and spent 2 minutes writing up my initial post - I am not really interested in pursuing this, following Chris's comment above.

 

[MagnusB]

You said thinking out loud, so I was doing the same

 

[lazer]

Ok. I read this as a question:

I am just curious, why would you have CAPTCHA on every post instead of just once during registration? I would think it would be much better to have the user only go through this once, instead of every time they want to post?

 

[MagnusB]

It was, I probably just misunderstood your reply. I also saw:

I am not really interested in pursuing this, following Chris's comment above.

So I thought any further discussion would be pointless.