Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
automated spam (what are those thingies called?)
I'm getting a ton of spam from the contact form. It's written in a way that it can't be used for mass mailings - everything comes to me - but it's very annoying for me! I'm going to look into adding one of those "type what you see in the picture" thingies (can't remember what those are called).
It would help in googling if I could remember what those controls are called. Does anyone recall?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
- Login to post comments
captcha update (where it's helping, where it's not)
There haven't been any spammers trying to sign up as members since I installed the captcha. It's not long enough to be sure it will work, but so far so good.
In contrast, the spam I receive from the site's Contact form has not diminished. Humans must be sending this crap to me. Hey humans - your Contact form spam goes only to me and I'm not buying anything, so please stop sending it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
found it - they're called captchas
Is this the priority - adding this? I dunno, but I need a break. Maybe I can add it quickly, and it sure would be nice to get rid of this spam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
captcha is installed on the Contact form
There's a captcha on the contact form now. That should help cut down on spam!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
thanks pro!
only cuts down on MY spam
Really it only helps me. The Contact form sends email to me, and spammers have been using it a lot lately to send me junk. Some contact forms have a bug that allows them to be used for mass emailing spam. Mine does not (I wrote it myself and made very sure). So I'm the only victim of the Contact form spam, but it's very annoying! It takes me time to check through the crap to make sure it's not a real person emailing me. The captcha should cut down on this quite a bit. It makes sure that a human being is sending the email - not a spambot.
I wonder if putting this on the registration form would free me from having to screen new members, which also is time consuming. Well, I can't spend more time on this today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
captcha story
ingenious, in a perverted way. i read somewhere that someone devised a scheme in which they visited pages w/ captchas, and they dl'ed the images. then they served them on their own pages, to humans (it was a hi volume porn site) and recorded the responses, such they built a db of captcha answers.
captcha workarounds
I read about this on Wikipedia. A dedicated spammer can get around anything automated. But this manual screening I do is a big pain in the neck, and new members don't like it, either, because sometimes I can't get to it right away. So I'm trying it. If the spam registrations stop, I'll remove the manual screening.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.