In addition to captcha verification...
Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 2:04 am
I noticed there's quite some spamposting going on lately.
Recently I found a very simple anti-spam measure on another forum. In the registration form, there was an additional field (besides the Captcha) requiring a "VIP Code", stating "you can find the VIP code on the forum".
And the required code was mentioned in one of the general FAQ / Rules / general info sticky topics (a reasonable place on this forum would be the phpdn tour or rules for example). You can see this as some alternative form of captcha: it takes some human effort to get the correct code.
Obviously, this is very easy to circumvent (especially if the vip code changes rarely or not at all). But it requires an attack specifically on this forum, rather than generic phpBB spambots which are MUCH more common.
Oh, one more thing: besides all this, it would be also wise to enforce a captcha verification not just for registering, but also for the first 5 posts someone makes.
Recently I found a very simple anti-spam measure on another forum. In the registration form, there was an additional field (besides the Captcha) requiring a "VIP Code", stating "you can find the VIP code on the forum".
And the required code was mentioned in one of the general FAQ / Rules / general info sticky topics (a reasonable place on this forum would be the phpdn tour or rules for example). You can see this as some alternative form of captcha: it takes some human effort to get the correct code.
Obviously, this is very easy to circumvent (especially if the vip code changes rarely or not at all). But it requires an attack specifically on this forum, rather than generic phpBB spambots which are MUCH more common.
Oh, one more thing: besides all this, it would be also wise to enforce a captcha verification not just for registering, but also for the first 5 posts someone makes.