http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha http://www.captcha.net/
CAPTCHA(TM)s (the distorted word thingys "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart") and other cognitive puzzles (pick the picture of a kitten from the 9 pictures to prove you are not a spambot) seem to be de riguer... though there are techniques for defeating them on the large scale. For a small site, just implementing a *bad* captcha can be enough to prevent minor/lazy spambots from visiting. Another techniques I've seen include the use of awful click-with-mouse javascript keypad where the numbers move around, and the numbers are graphics, but the code doesn't say which key is which number (its obfuscated), so a computer reading the webpage can't tell which buttons to press. Its super-duper annoying. ~~James On 10/27/06, Owen Densmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Wow! I just got hit with over *400* comment spams on backspaces! > > I had heard about it but had not personally experienced it. Its why > you get those weird and annoying "tell me what this distorted image > says" tickets before being able to enter your comment for forums or > blogs. > > So I've instituted several suggestions on this page: > http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Combat_Comment_Spam > .. but it seems a difficult problem to solve, other than simply > moderating every comment. > > Have any of us friamers had this happen to their sites? Any > interesting solutions? > > -- Owen > > Owen Densmore http://backspaces.net ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
