“CAPTCHA" - Does anybody use this?

My new webmaster added something called “CAPTCHA” to the contact & availability forms. As he defines it – “This will practically eliminate any spam that potentially could come through your forms.” Now you have to enter a set of numbers or letters in a text field so that you can send the form. Does anybody else have this?

My new webmaster added something called “CAPTCHA” to the contact & availability forms. As he defines it – “This will practically eliminate any spam that potentially could come through your forms.” Now you have to enter a set of numbers or letters in a text field so that you can send the form. Does anybody else have this?

DJ Inteligence has this option... it does work... spam bots have to enter a code in order to email ya.... so far Gigbuilder doesn't seem to offer this yet.

Yep CAPTCHA is Web 2.0-ish. I recommend that, among other server side & client side "defense" mechanisms. We do that.

I believe I have this locked in for my "Myspace" page. It does work!

Yeah ODJT uses it too. Basically it's letters & numbers in an image. Computers cannot read images only humans can therefore spam bots cannot spam because the form won't submit without the Captchpa being completed.

but what if. ..there was a spam bot to vectorize it.. and then compare it against letters?

I think my graphics teacher mentioned a handwriting to text software (which i still have not seen).... but this seems interesting

true... That is why alot of new captcha will do the following...

a) Warp the characters
b) insert noise in the background
c) insert lines at various lengths and thicknesses

all of those three will make it uber hard to crack in.

Captcha also uses a mixture of caps, lower case and numerals. Travis is right ~ it will usually keep the bots at bay.

That being said, since the human element is needed to circumvent captcha, poor people are paid pennies to log in and open the door to bots. Freemail addresses are usually used for email notification, a requirement to get through the gates. Once they do, they always disable the admin email function. This is done to prevent admin from receiving bounced messages ~ a sure sign of a bogus account.

Upon entry, some bots may set idle for weeks or even months. Posting right away would raise suspicion from the site's administrators. Bots are often programmed to start up on a specific date with a preset message. Some of the more creative programmers will program messages that appear innocent at first. The spam message or hyperlink is then posted later.

I understand that many of you guys are tempted to email or PM these "members" but it's an exercise in futility. No one will receive nor read your correspondence. :)