Damn Spam!

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

You might have noticed the increase in spam bot activity around here lately. It's unfortunate, but it's just part of being a forum. A while back we had the same problem and I solved it (temporarily) by adding a new required field to the registration form: a simple checkbox labeled "Are you human?". It worked for a while, but I guess the bot programmers got smart and told the bots to check for that.

So, it was time for a new plan. I already had an existing CAPTCHA system. You know, those annoying random numbers and letters that you have to enter to continue, that thing. The CAPTCHA system is actually really simple, basically when you load the registration page it generates a unique code and id, attaches it to your session ID, then stores it in the database. The code is both the question and the answer. When you submit the form, it passes the confirmation id back to the script along with the code you entered and compares it against the value in the database. If they match, the form validates.

It's too easy though, with computers getting more and more capable, programmers are able to teach their bots to actually read those codes from the image, it's called OCR or Optical Character Recognition, and it's something that's gotten a LOT better over the years. Unfortunately, it also makes CAPTCHAs pretty useless...unlessss........

I devised a simple new system that, instead of the question (and answer) being a random code of letters and numbers, the question is an actual math question, randomly generated. The numbers can be 1-9 and the operator can be plus, minus, multiply, and divide. The script catches instances where the result of the question is not an integer (such as 8/7 which is 1.1428571428.....) or is 0, because entering a zero causes the script to think you're entering a boolean "false", so you're essentially saying "the answer is false" which will always be false, causing it to fail validation.

Anywho, the system uses the existing CAPTCHA system from the forum, with a slight modification to save the question itself as a sting in the database (in order to print it to the image).

It seems to have worked so far, it's been running for about 20 hours and we don't have any spam bots (and there are a lot of failed registration attempts in the database), so hopefully it'll hold steady for a long while.

Just thought I'd let you know about this. It doesn't really affect anyone here, except for that you shouldn't (hopefully) have to deal with the spam bots anymore, which is always a good thing :D
_________________


~HaLo2FrEeEk

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

You might have noticed the increase in spam bot activity around here lately. It's unfortunate, but it's just part of being a forum. A while back we had the same problem and I solved it (temporarily) by adding a new required field to the registration form: a simple checkbox labeled "Are you human?". It worked for a while, but I guess the bot programmers got smart and told the bots to check for that.

So, it was time for a new plan. I already had an existing CAPTCHA system. You know, those annoying random numbers and letters that you have to enter to continue, that thing. The CAPTCHA system is actually really simple, basically when you load the registration page it generates a unique code and id, attaches it to your session ID, then stores it in the database. The code is both the question and the answer. When you submit the form, it passes the confirmation id back to the script along with the code you entered and compares it against the value in the database. If they match, the form validates.

It's too easy though, with computers getting more and more capable, programmers are able to teach their bots to actually read those codes from the image, it's called OCR or Optical Character Recognition, and it's something that's gotten a LOT better over the years. Unfortunately, it also makes CAPTCHAs pretty useless...unlessss........

I devised a simple new system that, instead of the question (and answer) being a random code of letters and numbers, the question is an actual math question, randomly generated. The numbers can be 1-9 and the operator can be plus, minus, multiply, and divide. The script catches instances where the result of the question is not an integer (such as 8/7 which is 1.1428571428.....) or is 0, because entering a zero causes the script to think you're entering a boolean "false", so you're essentially saying "the answer is false" which will always be false, causing it to fail validation.

Anywho, the system uses the existing CAPTCHA system from the forum, with a slight modification to save the question itself as a sting in the database (in order to print it to the image).

It seems to have worked so far, it's been running for about 20 hours and we don't have any spam bots (and there are a lot of failed registration attempts in the database), so hopefully it'll hold steady for a long while.

Just thought I'd let you know about this. It doesn't really affect anyone here, except for that you shouldn't (hopefully) have to deal with the spam bots anymore, which is always a good thing :D
_________________


~HaLo2FrEeEk

[s.k.]

Death to the spam! :D!! Good idea though, man.
_________________

[repivemag]

Eh, spam doesn't bug me much. Was kinda funny seeing the really random thread titles all of the sudden. Very nice idea though man, hope it works for good.
_________________
That Guy

[s.k.]

[Eviscerate Core]

Awesome, glad to know we're one step ahead of the computers. Can't let them win this war.

What will we do when they learn how to solve basic math? I know, reading comprehension questions!
_________________


-- Eviscerate Core

[Eviscerate Core]

Awesome, glad to know we're one step ahead of the computers. Can't let them win this war.

What will we do when they learn how to solve basic math? I know, reading comprehension questions!
_________________


-- Eviscerate Core

[repivemag]

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Poop, it looks like it didn't work...a spambot got through.
_________________


~HaLo2FrEeEk

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Poop, it looks like it didn't work...a spambot got through.
_________________


~HaLo2FrEeEk

[s.k.]

[repivemag]