Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

Topic created by Vadim on Sat Sep 24, 2011 at 1:34 pm

Vadim
Num Posts: 221
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Stuckey Pond
First O: 1983

Facing the problem.

Spam – it is now an unfortunate but inevitable problem of the internet. As most webmasters now realize, by operating an interactive website that contains at least one web form (eg registration, feedback, comments, forum messages, etc), spambots are highly likely to discover and plague a website. These nasty creations crawl across web pages and inundate forums, filling in web forms and sending spam information to the webmaster, website and site visitors (eg by means of a forum).

The true nature of spambots.

Spambots are automated programs, actively surfing the web by successively following hyperlinks while searching for web forms. Once a spambot finds a form, it parses and analyzes the form; if the form is suitable for spam purposes, it is recorded by the spambot for further use. How do spambots then use these web forms? They fill them with unwanted information, hyperlinks and visuals that are intended to attract a target audience. If a spambot is unable to read a HTML code describing the form contents, then the bot simply omits that code.

Anti-spam protection: Nuke them with the big weapon - CAPTCHA!

A CAPTCHA is a simple test that is easy for a human but well nigh impossible for a computer or "bot". You are bound to have run into these in your travels on the Internet (Google uses them when you sign up to their services for example). Typically you are presented with a few odd looking numbers and characters that you enter in a box before your form submission can be completed. The idea is that this is something only a human can do, but is impossible for an automated web crawler.

As part of our fight back to spam-bots I've implemented reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. on our e-mailing tool. The next steps would be to have same addition on guest and member joining forms.

Let me know if you have troubles or find something wrong with the addition.

Vadim.

Reply by j-man on Sat Sep 24, 2011 at 4:15 pm

j-man
Num Posts: 131
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Spackman Creek
First O: 1985

Thanks Vadim!

Reply by Guy-O on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 3:19 am

Guy-O
Num Posts: 356
Primary Club: HVO
Fav map: Spackman Creek
First O: 1982

Sometimes the text is easy to read, sometimes it is impossible.

NEOC has this and it has (had?) a very annoying characteristic:  Captcha was set to interrupt after writing your maessage.  But if you made a mistake (see above), it wiped out everything you had already typed.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Reply by Sandy on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 11:02 am

Sandy
Num Posts: 324
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Hickory Run 1:15000
First O: 1993

Thanks for taking the time to do this Vadim.  Dealing with spam is a nightmare and while I also have trouble sometimes reading the captcha symbols I'm definitely willing to put up with it if it reduces the amount of spam you and others need to deal with.

Reply by Vadim on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 5:30 pm

Vadim
Num Posts: 221
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Stuckey Pond
First O: 1983

We are getting spam on daily basis. Most of you don't see it.

If you cannot read CAPTCHA words, then press little button to get a new challenge. Repeat until you can be sure you read it right. I'm not going into web design details, but in some cases it's not possible (at least w/out complete redesign) to save form information and if the captcha wasn't correct, yes, you'll have to type it again. That's why I put a note on the (e-mailing) form to remind users to save their message text before clicking submit button.

I cannot invest a lot of time into web design and will focuse only on supprting web site for now.

Reply by furlong47 on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 7:32 pm

furlong47
Num Posts: 381
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Bucks County Community College
First O: 1994

Whenever I type a long message online, I always highlight and copy it before submitting, CAPTCHA or not. Too many times something happens and the posting doesn't go through. It's a good habit to get into. Then you only need to paste and try again.

Reply by Guy-O on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 10:56 pm

Guy-O
Num Posts: 356
Primary Club: HVO
Fav map: Spackman Creek
First O: 1982

Can't the Captcha test happen before the message box?

Reply by Vadim on Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 11:02 pm

Vadim
Num Posts: 221
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Stuckey Pond
First O: 1983

No.

Reply by Guy-O on Mon Sep 26, 2011 at 11:31 am

Guy-O
Num Posts: 356
Primary Club: HVO
Fav map: Spackman Creek
First O: 1982

Okay, I tried it and saw that the Captcha is part of the message form (as opposed to coming up after clicking Send)  The warning is very helpful -- wish NEOC's had had one.

Before Vadim's initial post, I had no idea that forms like this were SPAM-prone. 

Hope it works!