Could you please explain how the register.patch file works? I read the instructions you posted but I'm not quite sure what it does. Oh and does this work with 3.6.5?

The file register.patch is a GNU patch file. It has the location offsets and changes necessary for the modification to work. Rather than having to edit the file manually, this patch file will do it automatically. If you download the patch file and open it in notepad, you'll get a better understanding of what it's doing. It's basically an automated 'search and replace'.

If the 3.6.5 register.php has a different offset, then the patch file will fail, so you'll need to make the file edits manually in that case.

Either way, none of the changes are irreversable. If something goes awry, you simply overwrite register.php with your backup and you're off and running again. As long as you have a backup of register.php, there's no risk.

One more question. How would this mod be different/better than say a few of the others posted here such as the no spam which has a set of alternating questions a user must answer correctly to register on your site?

Considering I'm not familiar with the specifics of the modification you're speaking about I can only speculate as to it's functionality.

The benefit to reCAPTCHA is it's something any human can answer. Questions, regardless of how easy they are, may be interpreted wrong due to language barriers or possibly even mental capacity. The goal of a CAPTCHA isn't to test the users knowledge, it's to simply confirm they are human.

One of the added benefits of reCAPTCHA is the fact it takes something as trivial as registering on a forum and uses those "human processes" to do something productive. Helping to translate words that even the best OCR software in the world cannot translate is helping to advance the digitizing of books printed before the digital age.

Not to mention, reCAPTCHA uses 2 words to authenticate humans. One of the words is one that has been proven to be previously untranslated by bots. That's a pretty good security measure, if you ask me. :)

@magnus

Very nice hack. One question, I am confused to where I put the
code: # patch -b register.php < register.patch

Does this go in the patch file, register.php or else where?

No, that line is a command that needs to be run from a shell prompt -- provided you have shell access (the '#' indicates a shell prompt, the remaining text is the actual command to be run). Otherwise, you'll need to perform the edits manually as noted in Method B.

Also, please remember that these methods are exclusive of each other. You need to perform either Method A or Method B. Not both!

im not that bright, so i went ahead and manually edited the register page... and i am happy i took the time the stop.. this is very nice.. and replaces another hack i had in place... installed.... nominated

I ran and got this error : An error occurred while attempting to execute your query. The following information was returned.
error number: 1064
error desc: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'patch -b register.php < register.patch' at line 1

I still have No Spam! and AjaxReg hacks installed as I wanted to keep them also. Could one or both hacks of these hacks be causing a conflict or should I just try and edit the reg.php manually?

Wait, what? Why are you trying to execute the patch via SQL? Forget the patch. Remove any and all reference to it. Do not perform Method A, instead do what's listed in Method B. Perform the file edits manually.

Using the GNU patch method should be reserved for those with basic UNIX knowledge and shell access to their hosts. Everyone else should follow the instructions in Method B.

Glad to hear you go everything works. By the way, I love your forum's header image. It looks great. :)