Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Got as massive amount of spam sign ups on Puma People. 
 
Did have a question in there to try and cut it down, just asked to name a city in England, Scotland or Wales. 
 
Worked for a bit but they're now starting to come through. 
 
Changed it to airports and its gone from a signup every five minutes to half an hour. 
 
Thinking about London streets but there are 28k of them which might be a heavy query to check the answer. 
 
Can't think of anything else I can do which isn't geography.  Anything vaguely difficult might put genuine people off, and I can't think of anything to do with the car which can't be guessed within 2 minutes.
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Steve 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 30th Mar 02
 Location: Worcestershire             Drives: Defender 
User status: Offline 
 
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simple maths question
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corsa-torque 
Member 
 
Registered: 15th Mar 11
 
User status: Offline 
 
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With Steve on this one, the old forum I used to admin was set to what's 12 x 3, as simple as that is, cut down the spam sign ups massively 
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John 
Member 
 
Registered: 30th Jun 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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If the bots are getting past airports then surely a simple maths question won't do any good? 
 
What about the ones that ask a word and then a house number, I know they can be bypassed but surely not quite as easily. 
 
What about a hidden question that a bot would fill in but a human couldn't see, deny if it's filled in. 
 
[Edited on 23-11-2013 by John]
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Gary 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 22nd Nov 06
 Location: West Yorkshire 
User status: Offline 
 
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Admin verify signups?  
 
Maybe an easy ish Anagram?  
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Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Wanted to steer away from maths, just because it appears so easy to automate. 
 
At least with a general knowledge question you at least have to have some sort of lookup.
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Cavey 
Member 
 
Registered: 11th Nov 02
 Location: Derby 
User status: Offline 
 
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Agree with John on the second idea, a hidden question that a bot detects, but isn't visible
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Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Not got huge amounts of control over the actual question format, board software is terrible and I don't want to go making alterations to the code. 
 
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Russ 
Member 
 
Registered: 14th Mar 04
 Location: Armchair 
User status: Offline 
 
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What does the fox say?
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Gary 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 22nd Nov 06
 Location: West Yorkshire 
User status: Offline 
 
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Not a bad Idea though. Needs to be a question that has an obvious answer but only to a person. Quite hard to think of one that would make sense to everyone. 
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Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Can't even use things about the car because if you're going there for advice, you probably don't know that already.
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ed 
Member 
 
Registered: 10th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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If the spam is that bad then it might be worth resorting to reCAPTCHA.
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Ste 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 5th Mar 03
 Location: Taif, Saudi Arabia 
User status: Offline 
 
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Surely have the question as a .gif instead of text and mask it in a way to make it a bit harder. 
 
like 2+2= so even simpletons can do it.
 
  I would rather lose by a mile because i built my own car, than win by an inch because someone else built it for me.
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Ste 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 5th Mar 03
 Location: Taif, Saudi Arabia 
User status: Offline 
 
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  I would rather lose by a mile because i built my own car, than win by an inch because someone else built it for me.
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pow 
Premium Member
 
Registered: 11th Sep 06
 Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire 
User status: Offline 
 
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Or many images arranged in a table
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ed 
Member 
 
Registered: 10th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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reCAPTCHA has plugins and SDKs which are ready to use. Why re-invent the wheel when there's already a solution out there?
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Gaz 
Member 
 
Registered: 24th Aug 03
 Location: Widnes, Cheshire 
User status: Offline 
 
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Based on the image idea, can you not simply have a picture of say an animal and ask them to name it in the box, obviously don't name the dog image as dog.jpg but it could work, yes?
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Dom 
Member 
 
Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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If you can't go down the honeypot route then use a captcha as Ed mentioned, plenty to choose from - areyouahuman.com, Asirra, Picatcha, reCaptcha etc
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Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Mostly because I really hate those ones with the bendy words and I don't want to put users through it. 
 
Don't even really want a challenge question but it does suffer quite badly.
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Dom 
Member 
 
Registered: 13th Sep 03
 
User status: Offline 
 
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Should see if there is a Honeypot plugin available for the forum software; should cut the spam down a little and means you can get away with a simple challenge question.
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Half Pint 
Member 
 
Registered: 25th Mar 02
 
User status: Offline 
 
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Tube Stations in London ? 
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Leighton 
Member
 
Registered: 21st Feb 01
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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Lakes in the Lake district    
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Bart 
Member 
 
Registered: 19th Aug 02
 Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon 
User status: Offline 
 
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Ive seen registrations asking to spell what was in the picture, i.e cat, dog, mouse etc 
 
Seemed good and worked well.
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Ian 
Site Administrator
 
Registered: 28th Aug 99
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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quote: Originally posted by Half Pint 
Tube Stations in London ?  
   
 
quote: Originally posted by Leighton 
Lakes in the Lake district     
   
 
Yes!  Perfect, that's the type of thing, easy to find out but difficult to guess.
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Leighton 
Member
 
Registered: 21st Feb 01
 Location: Liverpool 
User status: Offline 
 
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mine is more taxing though !! 
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