Letter verification thingy

[Aimless]

Just wondering... is it possible to implement something like a letter/number-verification thingy for registrations? Like, you see a randomly generated image with some letters or numbers drawn on in squiggly ways and then you have to enter it in order to register. There must be a PHPBB hack for this!

[Tundra]

yeah we can have that. I turned it off because a FEW people who were actual real members couldn't see it.

[Maulden]

Bots aren't really that much of a problem to begin with though, right? >_>

[Akatari]

Bots aren't really that much of a problem to begin with though, right? >_>

Ah, for the heady days of August, when bots weren't a problem...

[Maulden]

Things change quickly on NiH, it seems. >_>

[Tundra]

And there IS a verification thingy now. AND a thing which means you have to get a verification email!

[Akatari]

And they're still getting through? :shock: Where are they coming from? :?

[Tundra]

^ this is why i'm not quite sure if they're bots, or if there's some company out there that hires hundreds of people to go and spam forums...

[cowmage]

The conformation email, I'm afraid, wouldn't provide much detriment to a bot, since the email is form-generated. For something as popular as PHPbb, it'd be pretty easy to tell a bot where to find the conformation link. It'll stop some, certainly, but not all.

The confirmation code widget would be a little harder, but not, I'm afraid, impossible. One simple option would be for a bot to display the image to a human, whose only job would be the typing of conformation codes (a job to make almost any seem interesting). It would also certainly be possible to retrieve the text automatically; while it would take a little bit of clever coding, it's a long way from impossible.

It's certainly possible that humans are paid to create the spam, though I doubt they do the task entirely by hand, since that would be inefficient. I expect that in almost all cases, at least that part of the spa that consists of ads is generated automatically.

[Akatari]

^ this is why i'm not quite sure if they're bots, or if there's some company out there that hires hundreds of people to go and spam forums...

That is just...who would ever take a job as BORING (and messed-up) as that?

[cowmage]

Anyone who needs the money. Me, for instance. I'd never want to do a job like that, but I'd take it if it was all I could get.

[mcnicks]

*d'oh*

[adelaidejane]

^ LMAO!

...for some reason that REALLY made me laugh, seeing that post at the end of this thread. AHHAHAHAAH!!!!! ^_^

[Naurien]

^ this is why i'm not quite sure if they're bots, or if there's some company out there that hires hundreds of people to go and spam forums...

That is just...who would ever take a job as BORING (and messed-up) as that?
People who need money?
I read an article in Newsweek a few years back about some guy who was super-duper rich (think multi-millionaire) from spam e-mails. I guess it pays, if you're into that sort of thing...

[heartsease1872]

^Oh, the bitter irony of having *that* post in *this* thread...