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$8 / yearly anti spam service

Started by richardwbb, October 08, 2020, 04:33:12 PM

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richardwbb

I stumbled upon this https://cleantalk.org/price-anti-spam

Does anyone know it is good or maybe want to advice against it? is there another service?

My potential userbase is about 480 since that is just the total cars road legal in my country according to a open database and I learned some good mechanics are bad with computers and I don't want to miss those.

That is why I prefer deleting bot user over questionaires but for $8 a year or $9.95 regular price I know the board members wil vote yes if I propose
If my post in this topic looks ambiguous to you, then I'm with Murphy's law and General Stupidity. In other words, trial and error.

Sir Osis of Liver

Waste of money.  Core verification questions are pretty much 100% effective for blocking spammers if properly implemented. 
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Arantor

Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on October 08, 2020, 05:01:01 PM
Waste of money.  Core verification questions are pretty much 100% effective for blocking spammers if properly implemented. 


If only that weren't specifically acknowledged by the OP with a consideration as to _why_ that actually might not work for him, which historically has worked out surprisingly often. Yes, the bots don't come back - often neither do a percentage of the humans.

Sir Osis of Liver

I've set up several forums with simple questions based on a simple image I've added to the template, questions a 3 year old could answer (here's one).  It's easy and 100% effective.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Arantor

I'll be honest, that's a better implementation than many, and unlike most it actually deals with colour blindness.

However it also runs the danger that any other questions have, which is that on a busy enough forum the questions will just be logged and spammers can get in again.

Sir Osis of Liver

Biggest problem I've seen with verif questions is it's really quite difficult to come up with a sufficient number of questions (I use 30) that aren't too easy or too difficult, so most forums don't bother.  Every forum I've done with this has a different image, so questions are different, and it's no big deal to change the image/questions periodically if bots get in, but it hasn't happened so far.  Each is a one-off, so logging the questions only works on the one forum.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Arantor

It mostly works *because* you do it so manually. If this were ever in use in more places, it would be automated away.

Sir Osis of Liver

Well, that's basically why all the widely used stuff sooner or later gets beat.  Spammers aren't interested in breaking into one site at a time, the whole point is volume.  If every forum had their own different verification method, bots wouldn't be a problem.  I've been using this for years on my own and a couple of busy client forums, it's never been beat.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

Deaks

i used arantors one for ages worked amazingly but not many forums used it.  But for OP i wouldnt waste your money.
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a10

Quoteit's really quite difficult to come up with a sufficient number of questions (I use 30) that aren't too easy or too difficult

Sir Osis' stuff is nice.

Also try this, just a few minutes of work to never see a bot again.
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=531660.msg3776163#msg3776163
One can easily make up 100's of questions if one so wishes, bots fails 100%, zero problems for humans.

The payed \ adding a mod thing, will only be useful or needed in case there is an afflux of human bots, very, very seldom. My experience, it can be years between some few attempts.
2.0.19, php 8.0.23, MariaDB 10.5.15. Mods: Contact Page, Like Posts, Responsive Curve, Search Focus Dropdown, Add Join Date to Post.

StarredSkies

Honestly, I'd just use Stop Spammer depending on what version. As of right now, it's compatible up to 2.0.17. Either something similar, as the others have suggested too.

I wouldn't waste your money.

MoonCat

I don't know about any above negative comments, but I can swear for the effectiveness of cleantalk service.
I had StopSpammers before... you need babysitting for that too...

no complex challenges during registration, no Captcha, it checks scripts are running (which bots disable)... I had many people turned off before by the complex registration process... also, it checks that people that just registered don't spam your forum with messages with links. etc. In short, since I installed CleanTalk - 0 spammers ever.

PS. No affiliation w/ CleanTalk services, just a very happy user.

richardwbb

I actually agree with the repsonse just get some questions there but I am aware that the casual surfer contains people that if I ask the brand of the car they say Nisan instead of Nissan or nisan or nissan. For the type of car it sure is 100NX but people type it 100 NX or NX100 or nx100, Nx 100 and more possible combinations.

If I ask for type of engine used then sureley not everyone would know and to ask for displacement, it can be 1.6 or 2.0 but people also answer 1600 or 2000 or 1600 cc or 1600cc and maybe some smart guy types 1998 cc since he knows everything mechanically but does not have experience with what computers are like

Maybe I shoud just try it then because such an investment as 8 coins is not the problem. How the heck something like Google's captcha fails hard remains a mystery to me  :o
If my post in this topic looks ambiguous to you, then I'm with Murphy's law and General Stupidity. In other words, trial and error.

richardwbb

I'm sorry, I missed half of the directions, I went to ebook and it said Sorry, registration is currently disabled. I do have a tight and proxy internet connection with the bells and whistles firefox.

That calculator looks nice though, I can't expect that to failable for humans that should be 18 (while sometimes some 16 year old registers since he already knows what car he wants) but with some education typing a number, brilliant, if bots fail that I surely keep it second best, (Willing to give a (one) paid service a try) and if that gives a boink, I will take this one, nice!
If my post in this topic looks ambiguous to you, then I'm with Murphy's law and General Stupidity. In other words, trial and error.

richardwbb

If my post in this topic looks ambiguous to you, then I'm with Murphy's law and General Stupidity. In other words, trial and error.

GigaWatt

Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on October 08, 2020, 06:10:29 PM
I've been using this for years on my own and a couple of busy client forums, it's never been beat.

Oh, I like it :).
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

GL700Wing

Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on October 08, 2020, 05:45:20 PM
I've set up several forums with simple questions based on a simple image I've added to the template, questions a 3 year old could answer (here's one).  It's easy and 100% effective.
Based on this idea I've written a Image for Anti-Spam Verification Questions mod.
Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful ...

Sir Osis of Liver

Saw that, will try it soon as I get a chance.  Will save a lot of work, iirc the image has to be formatted into 5 or 6 templates, and they're all different.
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend,
 we were all equal in the end.

                                     - R. Waters

GL700Wing

Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on January 08, 2021, 11:57:44 PM
Saw that, will try it soon as I get a chance.  Will save a lot of work, iirc the image has to be formatted into 5 or 6 templates, and they're all different.
I originally started integrating the code into several template files then I discovered they all called 'template_control_verification' in the GenericControls.template.php and I've tested registration, posting, searching so hopefully I've covered all the places visual verification is used.
Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful ...

Shades.

I use Cleantalk on at least 5 sites. Seems to be working pretty good for me. I don't like answering a bunch of questions when signing up anywhere and neither to my members. I've had 0 spammers since using them.

I also use stop spammer, httbl, and bad behavior mods but still had a bunch of spammers squeeze through when I wasn't watching...lol! 8)
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