• sirena
  • sirena
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2006-04-06
  • Posts: 473

Topic: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

I tried to find one, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

I was seeking a simple 'front-door' anti-spam mod that would add into the punBB user registration form a feature I've seen around the place on other forums, and some blogs too.

This feature presents as a simple text only form element that asks the user a simple question.

Ones I've seen include:

'Are you human?' Yes|No, with no as the default, asked one phpPP forum or
'What does 2+2' = ?,  or
'My name is Joe Smith. What are my initials?'

Are there any views on how effective this approach is?

And is there perhaps a punmod that implements something akin to this?

It's certainly not likely to be foolproof, of course. But it's simplicity : probable effectiveness ratio appeals to me, as opposed to a graphic CAPTCHA, Akismet plugins etc.

If there's no pre-existing mod, how hard would it be to just directly code such a question into register.php, manually changing the values from time to time?

  • Registered: 2004-04-16
  • Posts: 199

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

The problem with this is type of human check, is that it only lasts until someone finds the list of questions. The simple questions that would be asked is going to be a finite number, so at some point they are going to start repeating, it would be very easy to gather the list of questions and answers and then automate the input :\

I enjoy pie :)
  • sirena
  • sirena
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2006-04-06
  • Posts: 473

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

True. Changing it every few weeks or so would keep them on their toes, of course, but not completely solve the problems inherent in this approach.

4 Reply by mdfh (edited by mdfh 2007-04-29 15:07)

  • mdfh
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2005-03-05
  • Posts: 19

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

This is quite effective in phpbb sites in my country.
It's probably that we are not using English,
so that bots don't recognize the question.

phpbb's MOD: Anti Bot Question
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi … p;t=383305

  • sirena
  • sirena
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2006-04-06
  • Posts: 473

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

To answer my own question, there is indeed one such approach for punBB (an anti-spam mathbox) discussed here:

http://punbb.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=14069

6 Reply by gil

  • gil
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2005-10-12
  • Posts: 45

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

sirena wrote:

True. Changing it every few weeks or so would keep them on their toes, of course, but not completely solve the problems inherent in this approach.

But:
As it need a human help (at least one time), doesn't it push back the majority of robot?

I think that punbb lacks of a major function (*), that is a basic anti-spam function (which can be de-activated for adding another one (mod) if desired).

But nowadays, having an anti-spam function, it is not a mod, it is not luxury, it is a basic need.

(*) The only one.

gil's Website

  • sirena
  • sirena
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2006-04-06
  • Posts: 473

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

gil wrote:

But:
As it need a human help (at least one time), doesn't it push back the majority of robot?

True.

In general, the more variation in approaches taken by punBB forums to how registration is handled, the harder it will be for bots to reliably get their message into punBB boards.

If every punBB registration page or punBB install was unique, it would mean every spambot would need to deal with it uniquely.

Spamming lots of punBB boards would then probably not be cost-effective, even with considerable automation.

  • From: WonderLand
  • Registered: 2006-10-06
  • Posts: 259

Re: CAPTCHA alternative mod that asks simple questions?

The problem for me is not stopping spammers from getting to my boards, the spam fighter seems to work just fine.
What I need is that kind of captcha to stop bots from registering at the first place, or at least to reduce their number. It's not good to see your number of users grow fast, but the majority of them have insignificant nicknames and have never posted.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.

Papillon's Website