Verification for new members

[Auke]

Hi all,

I just created an SMF forum and am now in the progress of making it how I want it. Of course, being a non-technical newbie, this means I got 'some' questions.

Here's question number 2: I think the default verification system (captcha) is just horrible. Is it possible to choose for other verification systems? If yes, where can I find a step-by-step manual how to do that?

Thanks in advance,

Auke

[Arantor]

2.0 comes with anti-spam questions but unfortunately in 2.0 they're not multiple language.

As far as other options go, there's a few mods around but the best answer consistently has been anti-spam questions

[Auke]

Isn't there something with swirling letters or answering some simple mathematical question? Or even better, giving the answer to a slightly swirling mathematical question?

Thanks,

Auke

[Kindred]

Look at the anti spam mod category....

[Auke]

Look at the anti spam mod category....

Yes, well, I did that. But it gives me no clue as to what these captchas look like. Given that I suspect some not overly experienced computer users to have interest in my forum, I would like something that doesn't scare such people away but still works good. Isn't there a place where I can find examples of the different captchas? I don't want to download them all just to make a choice.

Thanks,

Auke

[Illori]

for the most part CAPTCHA is worthless.

[Kindred]

I don't use any captcha at all.

Questions (a 2;0 feature)
Bad behavior+httpBL (mod)
Stop spammer (mod)

And I have had a total of 2 spammers get through in the last 2 years

[Arantor]

Yes but your forum is only one language...

[Kindred]

True....

The other two mods should help with that, however....

[SatTrkr]

I have a new SMF forum up and running for a couple of months now. I use the website http://www.stopforumspam.com/ to check a registrants IP address, email address and username - in that order. If they are on the list I just delete them and keep a record of their registration data. I was using only CAPTCHA. I was getting hit pretty hard by spammers after a couple of weeks. One day alone I had 14 spammers register and not one genuine member. It was getting time consuming so about a week ago I decided to implement three questions that were directly related to the spirit of the forum. After that I have not had one spammer register. All I have had, so far, is genuine registrants. I wish I knew this earlier as it would have saved me a lot of time. Anyway, the three questions is very effective and they are simple but you have to be familiar with the spirit of the forum in order to answer the questions. I have had no complaints from any one of the new registrants and I do have valid registrations from Europe and South America as well as the US. I would highly recommend the three questions (or how ever many you choose to use) based on my current experience.

[Kindred]

However, as Arantor already pointed out  the op is looking for multilingual support... And smf 2.0 does not support questions in multiple languages, selected by language.

This is updated to be supported in 2.1, but that is still in alpha state.

[SatTrkr]

I had a total of 465 registrations of which 191 were valid members. That leaves 274 spam registrations. A large majority of the spam registrations were NOT from the US. I do have records of all of the spam registrations to include their IP address, email address, and user name. I have already sifted through those registrations and I have all of them sifted in IP address order. There were 23 spammers who registered more than once (anywhere from 2 to 7 times) and ALL of them were from overseas. I have not documented the remaining spammers locations but, if my memory serves me right, most of them were from outside of the US. The valid registrations I do have are from all over the world. Therefore, I conclude that multilingual support is really not a necessity for the registration process if one is selling a software application or supplying a forum for their hobby, business, or whatever and it is all in English. English is a very universal language so the questions one uses for anti-spam should be easily handled by most users interested in a particular forum - especially if the forum is in English.

Now, I am kind of new to this forum stuff and it is possible that there are forums that are translated into other languages. If that is the case then multilingual support is very nice to have. However, Google does have a language translator so if you pose a simple question in English and someone is trying to decipher that in their language then they could run the question through the Google translator.

Well, anyway, I am basically just saying that multilingual support for the registration process is not all that important in these days as English is pretty widely used everywhere. The spammers are very prevalent and don't give up easy if you make it easy for them to register. The advantage of using questions for anti-spam far outweighs the time spent sifting through and documenting spammers registering on your forum and worrying about multilingual support for the registration process.

[Kindred]

Except you would be incorrect.

Forums which support multi lingual discussions need to have support for those languages throughout,
We recognized this as a failure in2.0 and have adjusted it for 2.1...   But it definitely is a failure and a missing portion of the 2.0 features.

[Arantor]

Well, anyway, I am basically just saying that multilingual support is not all that important in these days

Considering the topic starter specifically asked in other topics about multi-lingual support, it is quite clearly important to the topic starter to be fully multi-lingual.

[SatTrkr]

Sorry about that as I was not aware of the other topic made by the post originator with regard to multilingual support. All I saw here was him mentioning captcha in his post and other posters introducing anti-spam methods of using questions. I would never thought I would have to research all of the poster's other posts in order to directly respond to this post. So you can see how my responses were tailored based on just what I saw in this thread only and the thread topic.

[Auke]

Yes, I understand that SatTrkr, no problem! The other people in this thread only know this because I posted my other question in this same board just minutes before this one.

To explain this here too: I expect a large portion of my potential forum members to be Dutch and French, including pensioners. Now of course one should not be biased and they all do learn English in school nowadays, but especially the not-wanting-to-use-English of 'the French' is proverbial. Because of this I want to make my forum English, but with all major explanations etc. trilingual (English, Dutch, French). Once people have become forummembers they can use either language (English prefered), but I don't want to scare them away at the gate.

Auke

[Kindred]

It is odd that neither of the actual language on registration mods has ever been updated to 2.0....

[SatTrkr]

Acknowledged Auke. I have a topic on my forum labeled Registration Instructions. In that I explain the registration process and the necessity to put them through all of this process. You could put that explanation in all three languages so they clearly understand the process and why you have implemented that process and allow that topic to be viewed as a guest. Then the chances of them being scared off should be reduced significantly since they now understand why you are requiring such a registration process. It can be grueling and scary for some but if they have an explanation of what the process is and why, they should be more at ease and just go with the flow. It is ashame that spammers have all this time to go through the registration process simply to gain access to one's forum and wreak havoc. They could better spend their time being constructive and contribute to the greater good of mankind. I have to just believe that they will get their due when they finally meet their maker.

[Auke]

@ Kindred:
I hope someone will work on it. I bet I'm not the only one with this problem>

@ SatTrkr:
Thank you for your reply. Most of my forum will be open to guests anyway, but I'll see if I can put your idea into effect somewhere in the top of the forum. Could you possibly send me the text you've used so I got a starting point?

Regarding those darn spammers: Let's hope St Peter has put a captcha on the doors of heaven that can only be read by the righteous ones. Three false tries and you're off to the sulfery cellar!

Cheers,

Auke

[Arantor]

There are several mods available for selecting a language on the forum. Language at registration is already too late for the registration agreement.

I suppose if I could be bothered, I could backport the changes I made for antispam questions in 2.1 back to 2.0 sometime.