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Important information for all new users to know

Started by FallenStar, December 14, 2010, 01:16:37 AM

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FallenStar

Due to the continuing nature of the spam bots being able to access this site, I have, regretfully, now implemented a system where any one with less than five posts will have to past a so-called "extreme" verification "captcha"-like series of letters in order to be able to post at all.

Hopefully, this will stop the spam bots, though I do not hold out much hope for it stifling them for very long. They're like the Borg... They keep adapting and soon, even the most extreme methods may not work against them.  :S

This should not affect any other members except those with extremely low post counts - lower than 5, but if it does, let me know and I'll get Serika and Duce to point out what I've done wrong.  :death:

FallenStar - Site Owner/Administrator

Welp... I'm fucked...

Ranpalan

A method I have heard to work, and that would probably please your grammar-nazi tendencies is to request the user to copy a sentence (with copy-paste allowed), and correct one or two errors. I would suggest `A spammer, you sey? your joking!'. Capitalisation required, naturally. :icon_twisted:

Gah, looking at that makes my brain hurt.
Always happy to get PMs/IMs

FallenStar

Unfortunately, SMF doesn't offer such an option and as I don't have particularly good programming skills, I can't just hack it into the forum's systems.

Nice try, though.  =P

The only other alternative offered is for me to have the forum ask a question upon each post that the user would have to answer correctly in order to actually post.
Welp... I'm fucked...

Serika

Quote from: Ranpalan on December 14, 2010, 12:09:11 PM
A method I have heard to work, and that would probably please your grammar-nazi tendencies is to request the user to copy a sentence (with copy-paste allowed), and correct one or two errors.

That sounds neat, but it would also amount to a de facto ban on the members that haven't quite mastered English yet. :lol:
On the internet you're only as smrt as your spell checker.

Ranpalan

If you can use a textbox to get the answer, you just put the sentence in the question along with a request to correct it, and then have the correction set as the answer.

Yes, Serika, that's another feature, although I'm quite sure most people can figure out that the wrong word is used even without mastering the language, and a spelling mistake in a three-letter word, as well as incorrect capitalisation, should be evident to anyone who's spent any time learning English.
Always happy to get PMs/IMs

FallenStar

Quote from: Serika on December 14, 2010, 01:37:24 PM
That sounds neat, but it would also amount to a de facto ban on the members that haven't quite mastered English yet. :lol:

Not that I'm particularly racist or anything, but I'm not too much in favor of non-English speaking people being on this forum for the simple reason that it'd be damn near impossible (short of me making a Global Moderator who knows the most common non-English languages used on the Internet) to moderate them without even knowing what exactly they're saying or if it's against the rules.  :death:


Quote from: Ranpalan on December 14, 2010, 02:42:40 PM
If you can use a textbox to get the answer, you just put the sentence in the question along with a request to correct it, and then have the correction set as the answer.

I thought along those lines myself after I posted the last time, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to broadcast myself as being a grammar-nazi. It hasn't brought me any friends and made quite a few enemies for me.  <_<'

At any rate, it's better than my idea of having the questions be stuff like:

Who were the Allies in World War II?
Who was the first American President?
What color is this forum?

:lol:

QuoteYes, Serika, that's another feature, although I'm quite sure most people can figure out that the wrong word is used even without mastering the language, and a spelling mistake in a three-letter word, as well as incorrect capitalisation, should be evident to anyone who's spent any time learning English.

You'd be surprised just how grammatically incorrect people can be, particularly on the internet and if you make verification systems based on using good grammar, it's quite possible to actually LOSE members who simply don't want to go through "English class cuz dis iz da 'net" sort of baloney.  >_>'

Hopefully, however, the capcha-like verification system for all those with fewer than five posts will hold for the time being until I can get my new computer back and I can talk to Duce about potential options (including a different method to upload stories without putting them in posts or .doc files).

Welp... I'm fucked...