Due to the enormous increase in SPAM bots visiting the site, I've been forced to add CAPTCHAs to the sign-up page. On some days recently, we've had as many as 150 bogus signups. The bots can't get in because they never reply to the emails sent out but they bog down the system with useless database entries and queries.
In addition, there have been actual humans signing up for real accounts then using bots to populate bogus spam comments. One enterprising fool a few weeks ago left sixty pieces of spam in just a few minutes before I found them and suspended their account and locked them out by the firewall. So much of this is done from probably remote accounts in Moldova and the Ukraine that I have actually locked those countries out of accessing BigCloset via the firewall. People who live there who have accounts through ISPs based in other countries can still access BC but not if their ISP has a Moldovan IP address or 90% of the Ukrainian ISPs. Large groups of Russian, Belarus, Latvian, Estonian and Chinese ISPs have also been locked out. One Italian ISP has been firewalled, too.
But because of human involvement with getting accounts, I've also added a CAPTCHA to the comment system. For people who aren't trying to flood the site with bot generated comment spam, you should see the CAPTCHA only once, or possibly once per machine/ISP/IP address you use. That is, if you have a dynamic IP address or get here through WiFi, you may occasionally be asked to fill out a CAPTCHA to leave a comment.
These are the simplest, easiest to use CAPTCHAs for Drupal I can find, just hard enough to cause 99% of bots to fail. To anyone who is visually impaired enough to make this system difficult, I apologize and I am searching for audio CAPTCHAs and/or logic CAPTCHAs that are sufficiently secure to replace this current system. The current logic CAPTCHA offered by Drupal is not secure.
Hugs,
Erin
Yay!
Just been capcha'd!
Seriously, you are now seeing robots using humans to infiltrate? Sounds like an idea for some sort of post-apocalyptic film---oh, hang on....
Good riddance to 'em
I hate spammers. I've been involved in an infuriating cat-and-mouse game with one e-mail spammer for months. Every time I think I've figured out where he's sending from and report it, the bastard fills my spam filter with more scams.
I hope the CAPTCHA trips them up and makes your (and your admins') lives easier :-D
(PS: The one you're using looks fine to my eyes, especially compared to some of the obnoxious ones out there that look more like someone spilled ink all over a Picasso painting :-))
Sneaky...
Sounds about right - unfortunately dealing with spammers is often a game of cat and mouse. On a similar note, a BBC Blog which I frequently comment on has been 'infected' by a particularly devious troll for the past three years, who routinely espouses his pet economic theory (which sounds suspiciously like communism) and slagging off the programme's production team. However, every time his account gets shut down, he creates a new one, presumably with different IP and email addresses to go with his new nickname, then posts very short innocuous stuff for the first dozen posts (to get out of automatic pre-moderation), and sometimes he'll just change accounts on a whim. Grrr!
As for this site's CAPTCHA, it's almost the first time I've seen a FIGlet-based one (I saw one once before - either on StarDust, OtherWorlds or Bob's public domain movie site). Presumably with the array of different FIGlet 'fonts', as well as the fact it's displayed as text rather than an image, makes it both (a) relatively easy to read and decipher [unlike 99% of CAPTCHAs] and (b) more difficult for automated tools to 'break'.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
There's a plugin for phpbb
There's a plugin for phpbb that may have an equivalent for Drupal. What it does is puts up a bogus field that claims to be 'required'. It's only visible to robots, because they read the code directly. So if someone fills that field in, it automatically blocks them.
That might help a bit.
You might also see if there's a CAPTCHA variant that isn't required after you've posted, say, thirty times.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
This one is supposed to get you only once
Are people having to fill it in more often?
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Apparently not. I thought
Apparently not. I thought maybe it was a 'once per session' or 'every time'.
I've posted other comments, and they didn't require the CAPTCHA, so maybe that'll help
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.