[arch-dev-public] Adding some kind of Captcha to our Wiki
Hi all, as discussed here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=557394 some spam bots seem to like our wiki. I have developed a very simple but effective way to stop such bots. Of course they could easily bypass it but as it is not used by anybody else the bot programmers just don't know about it. The idea is to set a cookie on each form which existence will be checked before each form action. The cookie is set by an "image" which is included by CSS. Until now there seems to be no bot which reads CSS definitions. Those which use text browsers will see a text form in which they need to enter a short hex code in order to submit anything. Anyone else wont even notice that there is a captcha. So, what do you think? Should I activate this plugin? The only thing I need to do is translating some error mesages from German into English. PS: Source code is at: http://git.archlinux.de/wiki.archlinux.de/tree/extensions/FunnyDot.php -- Pierre Schmitz Clemens-August-Straße 76 53115 Bonn Telefon 0228 9716608 Mobil 0160 95269831 Jabber pierre@jabber.archlinux.de WWW http://www.archlinux.de
On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 04:13, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
as discussed here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=557394 some spam bots seem to like our wiki.
Perhaps it's worth a look at some of the solutions below before adding anything that will reduce usability for the users. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/14/captcha-alternatives/
Am Samstag, 23. Mai 2009 16:31:52 schrieb Daenyth Blank:
Perhaps it's worth a look at some of the solutions below before adding anything that will reduce usability for the users. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/14/captcha-alternatives/
In what way will usability reduced for users? Only those who use a browser which does not support CSS will see an additional text field and need to type in 4 digits. All others wont notice anything. -- Pierre Schmitz Clemens-August-Straße 76 53115 Bonn Telefon 0228 9716608 Mobil 0160 95269831 Jabber pierre@jabber.archlinux.de WWW http://www.archlinux.de
On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 13:25, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Am Samstag, 23. Mai 2009 16:31:52 schrieb Daenyth Blank:
Perhaps it's worth a look at some of the solutions below before adding anything that will reduce usability for the users. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/14/captcha-alternatives/
In what way will usability reduced for users? Only those who use a browser which does not support CSS will see an additional text field and need to type in 4 digits. All others wont notice anything. That's my exact point. If there's a way to avoid that drawback while still being effective against spammers, then we should use it.
On Sat, 2009-05-23 at 14:12 -0400, Daenyth Blank wrote:
On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 13:25, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Am Samstag, 23. Mai 2009 16:31:52 schrieb Daenyth Blank:
Perhaps it's worth a look at some of the solutions below before adding anything that will reduce usability for the users. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/14/captcha-alternatives/
In what way will usability reduced for users? Only those who use a browser which does not support CSS will see an additional text field and need to type in 4 digits. All others wont notice anything. That's my exact point. If there's a way to avoid that drawback while still being effective against spammers, then we should use it.
How common do you think it's to browse the wiki with a text browser and add text to it?
On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Jan de Groot <jan@jgc.homeip.net> wrote:
On Sat, 2009-05-23 at 14:12 -0400, Daenyth Blank wrote:
On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 13:25, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.de> wrote:
Am Samstag, 23. Mai 2009 16:31:52 schrieb Daenyth Blank:
Perhaps it's worth a look at some of the solutions below before adding anything that will reduce usability for the users. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/14/captcha-alternatives/
In what way will usability reduced for users? Only those who use a browser which does not support CSS will see an additional text field and need to type in 4 digits. All others wont notice anything. That's my exact point. If there's a way to avoid that drawback while still being effective against spammers, then we should use it.
How common do you think it's to browse the wiki with a text browser and add text to it?
I agree, it is silly not to do this. Nowhere did Pierre state you can't browse the wiki in a text-mode browser. Good luck trying to edit a 50K text field in links. -Dan
participants (4)
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Daenyth Blank
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Dan McGee
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Jan de Groot
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Pierre Schmitz