Comments on: Exterminating Form Spam http://highedwebtech.com/2008/06/13/exterminating-form-spam/ Higher Ed Web Development Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:09:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: The ReCaptcha MailHide API | HighEdWebTechhttp://highedwebtech.com/2008/06/13/exterminating-form-spam/comment-page-1/#comment-1207 The ReCaptcha MailHide API | HighEdWebTech Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:58:06 +0000 http://highedwebtech.com/?p=65#comment-1207 [...] in June, I blogged about using ReCaptcha on the majority of the forms at my school. We’ve got a centralized [...] [...] in June, I blogged about using ReCaptcha on the majority of the forms at my school. We’ve got a centralized [...]

]]> By: grundyhome.com » Blog Archive » Why CAPTCHAs Are a Waste of Timehttp://highedwebtech.com/2008/06/13/exterminating-form-spam/comment-page-1/#comment-1206 grundyhome.com » Blog Archive » Why CAPTCHAs Are a Waste of Time Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:47:25 +0000 http://highedwebtech.com/?p=65#comment-1206 [...] left this comment in response to HighEdWebTech’s post, Exterminating Form Spam and decided it was worth sharing here. In my opinion, CAPTCHAs are a “rock and a hard [...] [...] left this comment in response to HighEdWebTech’s post, Exterminating Form Spam and decided it was worth sharing here. In my opinion, CAPTCHAs are a “rock and a hard [...]

]]> By: Chas Grundyhttp://highedwebtech.com/2008/06/13/exterminating-form-spam/comment-page-1/#comment-1205 Chas Grundy Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:44:49 +0000 http://highedwebtech.com/?p=65#comment-1205 In my opinion, CAPTCHAs are a "rock and a hard place" kind of idea. They can be effective against spammers, but are increasingly frustrating for real users. But as it happens, real users are the ones you care the most about.Isn't it more important to take care of these users, even at the risk of a bit of spam?Meanwhile, there are lots of little tricks that knock out the majority of spam submissions, such as hidden (or display:none) fields - scripts don't know any better and fill them in, so you can eliminate any that have that field filled. Or possibly relying on Javascript methods for submission, which most scripts will not support and parse. In my opinion, CAPTCHAs are a “rock and a hard place” kind of idea. They can be effective against spammers, but are increasingly frustrating for real users. But as it happens, real users are the ones you care the most about.

Isn’t it more important to take care of these users, even at the risk of a bit of spam?

Meanwhile, there are lots of little tricks that knock out the majority of spam submissions, such as hidden (or display:none) fields – scripts don’t know any better and fill them in, so you can eliminate any that have that field filled. Or possibly relying on Javascript methods for submission, which most scripts will not support and parse.

]]> By: Dan Jhttp://highedwebtech.com/2008/06/13/exterminating-form-spam/comment-page-1/#comment-1204 Dan J Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:07:53 +0000 http://highedwebtech.com/?p=65#comment-1204 Thanks for the article Mike - glad you've had some success! Is that FormBuilder as in VeerWest formbuilder?I've seen a lot of discussion recently about the effectiveness & accessibility of CAPTCHA tests. One article definitely worth reading is at http://www.sitepoint.com/article/captcha-problems-alternatives, where they argue that determined hackers will always find a way around this kind of authentication test, & that heuristics testing (e.g. Akismet) may be the way forward.Any thoughts on this? Thanks for the article Mike – glad you’ve had some success! Is that FormBuilder as in VeerWest formbuilder?

I’ve seen a lot of discussion recently about the effectiveness & accessibility of CAPTCHA tests. One article definitely worth reading is at http://www.sitepoint.com/article/captcha-problems-alternatives, where they argue that determined hackers will always find a way around this kind of authentication test, & that heuristics testing (e.g. Akismet) may be the way forward.

Any thoughts on this?

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