Bots

[Alblaka]

Ye, of course you ban them (usually quite quick and with lolish comments in their sigs ), but still:
Isn't it possible to just add something more to the registration formula to prevent bots from even joining the forum?

Like a captcha which is showing the name of one of our dear members (Like Ducklectric or Sir Somin) or something similar?

[Ramond]

Don't think we haven't thought about that yet.

Well, for one, if it's too simple, the bots can easily surpass it, if it's too hard, many newbies will fail.

[Lauli]

Wouldn't those funky pictures, where you have to write some numbers into some field (?), be enough?
I mean...
Even if some bots could surpass it, wouldn't it still block a few of them?

[Alblaka]

Wouldn't those funky pictures, where you have to write some numbers into some field (?), be enough?
I mean...
Even if some bots could surpass it, wouldn't it still block a few of them?

Captchas are usually a great protection against bots, but usually they also prevent idi... uhm, "new unexperienced members" from registering... Therefore i recommend something like typing a name.

(I personally hate captchas which required some random letters, since these random letters are usual (un)capital and though there is a "The captcha doesn't obeys whether the entered letters are capital" your first 42 tries always fail.)

[Ramond]

In case you haven't tried it out, we DO have a captcha system installed. With two words, not random bunch of letters and numbers.

[Alblaka]

In case you haven't tried it out, we DO have a captcha system installed. With two words, not random bunch of letters and numbers.

Then that was added AFTER my registration ^^'

But since when captchas can be read by bots o.o

[Silverthorn]

In case you haven't tried it out, we DO have a captcha system installed. With two words, not random bunch of letters and numbers.

Then that was added AFTER my registration ^^'

But since when captchas can be read by bots o.o

Those newer captchas have been introduced just a few months ago which does make a difference in bot-quantity. For a week or so, when we temporarily used the default protection system the amount of bots jumped up quickly.

So, there's not much elsewisely that we could do. I could add a couple new fonts to the captcha-system, but that'd make it almost unreadable :P

[Divisor]

Well...hard captchas prevent bots from registering, as well as dumb people registering.
Aaand, we try to keep the forum clean from both bots and dumb people.

So, doesn't this kill two flies with one shot?

[Alblaka]

I read about a forum having a special kind of protection.
Instead only entering your name+e-mail and then getting a confirmation mail, after pressing "register" you got relinked to another site where you ned to confirm the e-mail again.

Since having the confirmation on a 2nd page, which is quite unusual, the forum was quite spam-bot-proof ^^

[Taniaetc]

Well, for captcha methods I would suggest koala's one:
Three different pictures. A text saying "Choose the aeroplane (or randomize this)".
Come on, we HAVE to suggest a well-working method.
I'd suggest koala's one OR something that a human brain could think and bots and man-made thingies can't.