Comments on: My unorthodox CAPTCHA blocked thousands of spam comments every week http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/ Stay curious! Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:02:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: MM http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-10806 MM Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:53:07 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-10806 i get most of my spam blocked, not only the comments on my blog but also in my email. i usually find, especially for the e mail spam, that as long as you dont enter your e mail or your information in mailing lists ( i got my explination at http://www.advertisingonlinesite.com/MailingListBrokers.html and so far its held up pretty well) the ammount of spam you recieve declines significantly. the only exceotion is my work e mail account. recently a virus infiltrated the system and spam is sent from the e mail address of many of my co workers. a big pain. i get most of my spam blocked, not only the comments on my blog but also in my email.

i usually find, especially for the e mail spam, that as long as you dont enter your e mail or your information in mailing lists ( i got my explination at http://www.advertisingonlinesite.com/MailingListBrokers.html and so far its held up pretty well) the ammount of spam you recieve declines significantly.

the only exceotion is my work e mail account. recently a virus infiltrated the system and spam is sent from the e mail address of many of my co workers. a big pain.

]]> By: Jay Pipes http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9608 Jay Pipes Tue, 29 May 2007 19:41:24 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9608 I got more than 250K (yes, 250,000) spam comments in my blog in one month and subsequently turned off comments altogether, which is, according to some, even worse than not consistently blogging! ;) I use Serendipity, and an old version at that. Just trying to find the time to upgrade/enhance it is so very hard! But, I'm not surprised at all that your CAPTCHA caught more spam than a published plugin... the spammers will always target the published ones first! :) -Jay I got more than 250K (yes, 250,000) spam comments in my blog in one month and subsequently turned off comments altogether, which is, according to some, even worse than not consistently blogging! ;) I use Serendipity, and an old version at that. Just trying to find the time to upgrade/enhance it is so very hard! But, I’m not surprised at all that your CAPTCHA caught more spam than a published plugin… the spammers will always target the published ones first! :)

-Jay

]]> By: sapphirecat http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9544 sapphirecat Tue, 29 May 2007 12:18:32 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9544 Interesting - I am currently blocking 100% of spam on my blog with a negative captcha. I removed the email address field from my comment form, and I reject any comment with an email address present. I only used to see a few per week, so my spam-load was nothing like yours, but it was still enough to be frustrating to me. I don't expect this to last, though. I set up a captcha on an old UBBThreads forum for someone; prior to doing so, I added a hidden field with a random value, and about 50% of the spambots there correctly passed the hidden field. Interesting - I am currently blocking 100% of spam on my blog with a negative captcha. I removed the email address field from my comment form, and I reject any comment with an email address present. I only used to see a few per week, so my spam-load was nothing like yours, but it was still enough to be frustrating to me.

I don’t expect this to last, though. I set up a captcha on an old UBBThreads forum for someone; prior to doing so, I added a hidden field with a random value, and about 50% of the spambots there correctly passed the hidden field.

]]> By: Aaron Bassett http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9481 Aaron Bassett Tue, 29 May 2007 07:18:53 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9481 You might want to take a look at wp-gatekeeper by Eric Meyer. Its sort of like the did-you-pass-math plugin but it lets you set simple questions for your users to answer (I use it on my own blog and it seems quite successful). The only slight problem I have come across with it is the fact that some users who don't have english as a first language can find some of the questions confussing. But then that is probably more to do with the questions I have written than with the plugin itself. You might want to take a look at wp-gatekeeper by Eric Meyer. Its sort of like the did-you-pass-math plugin but it lets you set simple questions for your users to answer (I use it on my own blog and it seems quite successful). The only slight problem I have come across with it is the fact that some users who don’t have english as a first language can find some of the questions confussing.

But then that is probably more to do with the questions I have written than with the plugin itself.

]]> By: Bill Minton http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9448 Bill Minton Tue, 29 May 2007 02:45:45 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2007/05/28/my-unorthodox-captcha-blocked-thousands-of-spam-comments-every-week/#comment-9448 To me, captchas are similar to challenge/response email filtering. While many abhor them, I think it's impossible to beat them with content (bayesian) filtering. Similarly, it would be nearly impossible for content filtering to match the the accuracy of your custom solution. To me, captchas are similar to challenge/response email filtering. While many abhor them, I think it’s impossible to beat them with content (bayesian) filtering. Similarly, it would be nearly impossible for content filtering to match the the accuracy of your custom solution.

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