Verifications on posts

[tbplayer]

Do the post verifications apply only to new members? How many posts does one have to make to have the verification removed?

Or is the posts verification for all members all of the time?

[tbplayer]

OK, it seems that the verification goes away after 10 posts, true?

[MC73]

Correct ... so post about 6 more times to get rid of it

[Colin]

Yeah, I know it is very hard to read. In fact I even remember having to have a few goes at it as I couldn't get it the first time.

[tbplayer]

Thanks guys!

I totally understand why the verification is there, and knowing that I'll only have to put up with it for a few more posts makes it easier to tolerate.   

[margarett]

I strongly suggest the option to listen to the letters, if your computer is audio-enabled.

[tbplayer]

I strongly suggest the option to listen to the letters, if your computer is audio-enabled.

Yes, I've had to do that with some of the letter combinations.   

Can bots really read these images if they aren't scrambled to the point of almost not being able to be read by humans?

[Arantor]

Yes, they can. The fact there are spammers here every day is validation of that fact.

[Arantor]

How ironic, a spammer.

[mashby]

That is rather ironic, yeah. Yanked/warned.

Sucks that this site doesn't apply the mods that many of the staff recommend in support topics. Oh well, life goes on. I get practice clicking Remove several times a day. Seems I could spend my time better, yeah?

[Arantor]

The main reason for not applying Q&A is because SMF Q&A is one language only and we have a bunch of languages in use here.

As for the others, this site's already under load, and those mods would add more - and give a false impression of what SMF does out of the box.

[mashby]

Yeah, Q&A is out of the question for this site due to the languages. I'm not a server dude nor do I play one on TV, but you'd think we would make one of the mods a feature, but alas, I guess that's not happening either. If this site is impressing those for its out of the boxness regarding spammers...

[Arantor]

The reason for not making them core features is a general sense of keeping external features external - less to fix if there's the inevitable updates on the other end (e.g. PayPal, in 2.0.3)

[tbplayer]

I guess I'm too slow/new... I didn't see the spam. 

The main reason for not applying Q&A is because SMF Q&A is one language only and we have a bunch of languages in use here.

Ah, what is this Q&A you speak of? 

Seriously, I searched the Mods page and didn't find it - does it have a full name?

[mashby]

Questions and Answers, built-in to 2.0.x.

[MrPhil]

If this site is impressing those for its out of the boxness regarding spammers...

I don't see why we couldn't have the best of both worlds... add a reasonable number of anti-spam/usability mods to this installation (not necessarily to the base/core product) AND document the list in an "About this Forum" button: "This is SMF 2.0.3 with a slightly modified Curve theme and a custom SSI-based wrapper blah blah blah... In addition, the following mods are installed: X (extended Q&A), Y (post-based transparent bleems), and Z (auto self-destruct Easter Eggs)."

Some sort of registration/feedback on mod usage would be helpful in gauging whether to fold a mod into the base product: if 90 or 95% of all sites use a given mod, perhaps it should be a feature. After all, just because someone living in the Atacama Desert doesn't get windshield wipers for their car doesn't mean that wipers should be optional for every car in the world! Maybe there could even be some sort of way to google for some marker in a forum to do the counting, rather than relying on manual feedback or surveys or intrusive bots scanning sites?

[Arantor]

-sigh-

First up, this site already has a very large amount of custom code. Every extra modification therefore makes keeping it up to date very difficult, and adding even more is likely to make it worse, not better.

Secondly, it does actually make it look better than it is if it has it employed here, because it will give out the impression that SMF can, out of the box, deal with spammers. We already have enough questions on that as it is without false impressions being created.

Thirdly, having integrations with third party services, by default, not only goes against the way SMF has historically been run, but it creates a significant support overhead (and it's not like SMF can cope with the support issues it already has, let alone increasing by a significant amount), partly because such services don't just work out of the box but require an API key of some kind to be signed up for (or even bought in some cases) and partly because whenever they need updates, they're going to be trouble.

God knows how much hassle there is going to be next month, and that will be a perfect example of why third party services shouldn't necessarily be core features. Next month, PayPal will start requiring all payment notifications to be sent via HTTP/1.1 rather than accepting both 1.0 and 1.1. SMF 2.0.3 has patched this, but for any installation prior to 2.0.3, it's going to break. And then you're going to have a flood of people with "my paid subscriptions don't work any more" / "Upgrade to 2.0.3" / "I can't upgrade because..." to deal with.

That's the problem with integrating third party services: every time the service changes anything, you need to go back and regression-test, which given how little dev support there is already, is practically impossible going forward - and you want to increase the workload?

If 90% of all users use a certain mod, that would imply there is a significant use for that feature. Except by that logic, every SMF installation should come with a gallery, a shoutbox, ad management, a portal and a likes feature. (Funny how none of the anti-spam mods make the top 5 nor even the top 10 most popular mods and have never really done so.)

[tbplayer]

Questions and Answers, built-in to 2.0.x.

Ah, thank you. After I set up SMF I went through all of the Admin options, and I had seen that one, I just didn't know that that was what you guys were referring to. Plus I'm still trying to remember where everything is... I find myself wanting to make a change and then clicking on option after option until I find what I need!   

Yes, they can. The fact there are spammers here every day is validation of that fact.

This is what I'm a bit amazed at - I, a real life human being, had a problem correctly identifying some of the letters, yet bots apparently have some sort of routine built-in that allows them to "read " the letters - crazy!

[Arantor]

yet bots apparently have some sort of routine built-in that allows them to "read " the letters - crazy!

Actually, OCR on the letters is not difficult, it's not like there is a vast pool of letters to be detecting against - any SMF installation is going to be using the fonts that are bundled with it, which means you have a ready-made set of data to compare against.

I actually used to speculate that the bots would be using the audio CAPTCHA to get in (much as they did with reCAPTCHA) except that I disabled the audio CAPTCHA and never saw a bot trying it. Though again, there's a ready made set of exemplars to compare against.

[Arantor]

Yes, because it slows spammers like you down.