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> I tend to include text fields (later visually hidden or obscured with Javascript) with "name" parameters like "email", "url" and "name". Spam bots always fill
by ZoFreX 16y ago
> I tend to include text fields (later visually hidden or obscured with Javascript) with "name" parameters like "email", "url" and "name". Spam bots always fill these in. Your users won't, because the fields are hidden. If the fields are filled in, your submission came from a spambot. Easy!
Fuck every website that does this. It's 2011, we should all be using password managers. If using LastPass makes your site flag me as a robot, I'm not going to use it.
CAPTCHAs are like crypto: Don't roll your own unless you have good reason to and know what you're doing. Just throw in reCaptcha, or Mollom, or (preferably) some crowd-sourced solution that leverages your userbase (the best way that will scale, imo).
- iaskwhy 16y agoI use the same trick but instead of calling it name, url or email I just think of something which won't be used anywhere else. Last time I did it I called the field do_you_like_{site_name}. No more bots and no humans hurt.
- Hoff 16y agoFollowing the crypto analogy, reCAPTCHA is approaching the effectiveness of a Beaufort cipher. The reCAPTCHA tool has been broken. Various of the botnets will sail right past reCAPTCHA. And yes, the choice here and the options here stink. Nobody wants a CAPTCHA. But the alternative is becoming part of the collateral damage of the arms race seeking to fill Google with cruft. Or shutting off all comments. Or escalating the arms race with subnet firewall blocks, content and email address filtering, reactive security, moderation or (if you have the appropriate audience for it) crowd-sourcing.
- ZoFreX 16y agoThis is true, I was struggling to think of an option that doesn't cost money (Mollom) or require a lot of effort (crowd-sourcing a la HN or Reddit). Is reCAPTCHA better than nothing, or entirely worthless?
- Hoff 16y agoWhen it comes to CAPTCHA... Effective, Cheap, or Simple... Pick any two... As for your question, I switched from reCAPTCHA over to a different scheme, though I might test with reCAPTCHA with different settings again in a few months.
- ZoFreX 16y agoI'm about to roll out a site using Mollom for the first time, will be interesting to see how well it works.