Keeping spam-bots away? ("Kittens vs. Cars")

[Dreamsong 253]

Looks like the forums and Pony.FM are getting noticed by spammers and spam-bots....  I know the admin staff is very much on-the-spot with removing these things, but like a lot of other alpha-testers for Pony.FM, I've "watched" this forum, so I get emails forwarding on the spam-posts nonetheless....

 

A while back, I ran my own forums and had a similar problem -- but someone suggested an anti-bot-test that had the user fill-in a text-field as to whether a picture was of kittens or of cars....

 

I was just wondering if something like this might be coded here and on Pony.FM as well?

 

Perhaps: "Mare vs. Stallion" or "Twilight vs. Luna" or other even more pony/Brony specific tests?

 

Just thinking-out-loud!

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

The issue is that spambots are figuring out how to submit the feedback form on Pony.fm, which feeds into this forum. It'll be alleviated completely once I have Poniverse.net up and running, as all registrations will then be screened for spam through that using systems similar to what keeps MLP Forums spam-free.

 

Just this morning, though, I implemented a patch that should prevent all the spambots we've seen so far from being able to submit that form. That should noticeably curb the issue. I'll look into a some form of captcha as well, but Poniverse.net will soon take over handling all registrations anyway.

[Dreamsong 253]

@@Feld0, That is awesome to hear!

 

(I can only imagine all the, "Oh!  This needs to be done too" kinds of things that must be almost overwhelming!)

[CloudFyre 848]

This is a good idea - I've been noticing a large influx of very weird and very odd emails from the MLP Forums that notified me of threads that made no sense whatsoever.

I guess it was only a matter of time I guess.

[Jack "Fox" Grayson 27]

I think a plain ol' CAPTCHA (those squiggly letters you see when you sign up for certain sites) will do it. I'm not sure if this was discussed before.  

[ASocialyAwkwardPony 299]

I think a plain ol' CAPTCHA (those squiggly letters you see when you sign up for certain sites) will do it. I'm not sure if this was discussed before.  

 

Oh dear, please not those, anything but those. I would much prefer to have the "click the picture of X pony to proceed" thing myself at least

[Jack "Fox" Grayson 27]

Oh dear, please not those, anything but those. I would much prefer to have the "click the picture of X pony to proceed" thing myself at least

Heh, heh, if you're really so averse to those   I suppose the pony-related tests that everyone is discussing would work, too.

I put up the CAPTCHA idea since there are already many implementations of this system out there. (One of my favorites is reCAPTCHA.)

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Heh, heh, if you're really so averse to those   I suppose the pony-related tests that everyone is discussing would work, too.

I put up the CAPTCHA idea since there are already many implementations of this system out there. (One of my favorites is reCAPTCHA.)

 

Oh dear, please not those, anything but those. I would much prefer to have the "click the picture of X pony to proceed" thing myself at least

 

Count me in with Nightmare Lyre on this one. Many modern text-based CAPTCHA's have actually become easier for computers to solve than humans; reCAPTCHA is especially guilty of this.

 

The most effective CAPTCHA's are actually simple ones you can cook up in an afternoon over ones that are professionally developed in labs over years (@nlaq will attest to this). MLP Forums, for example, briefly quizzes registrants about the elements of harmony, and bots are pretty bad at getting past that; it's easier for them to move on to another site that uses a well-known CAPTCHA like reCAPTCHA, which they're designed to crack.

[Jack "Fox" Grayson 27]

 

 

MLP Forums, for example, briefly quizzes registrants about the elements of harmony, and bots are pretty bad at getting past that;

I realize that I was not exposed to this system since I signed up using Twitter. ?  The only reason I proposed a CAPTCHA was that a simple Q-and-A system reminded me of the simple math problems some other forums use (also not very secure).  But if the system currently on MLP Forums works well...