Recaptcha vs Q&A, want more information.
 

Hey,

I've read and seen that recaptcha has become virtually useless. After running some PHPBB3 forums for a few months, and finding they are utterly spamtastic, and being unable to tell if the recatpcha works, I figured I ask those that know.

If recatpcha is dead, does anyone have links to how and why? Or simply some articles about how the spammers get setup and work on various forums?

This kicks bot butt:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=135094

In the thread there's instructions on how to code this to work for vB 4.

I've installed that one too.

So thats:

1) Spam Decimator
2) vbStopForumSpam
3) VAa Advanced permissions
4) isBot

Any others? I've not run my forums live yet. Still locked down from the move.

Also my earlier question still stands, any info about the cracking of recaptchas?

On #4 above, did you do the template edit necessary, and also change the plug-in code for vB4 compatibility?

I don't use the recaptcha, I use the Q and A with the answer being identical to the question - which is a long, convoluted paragraph essentially instructing the human to copy and paste the entire paragraph into the answer box. Bots can't read or follow instructions, or copy/paste either. I have four of these, all worded slightly differently, that rotate.

I have heard for years that captcha was defeated, never really cared about researching it since I've never used it for human verification. So, sorry I can't help you much with that answer. My answer is, don't use it.

Nope.

But thankyou for letting me know. I've seen in a few place people talking about the long paragraphs. I'd like to find out a little more before I swap out the recaptcha, although I imagine a nonsense decoder being more difficult to write than OCR.

--------------- Added [DATE]1319630553[/DATE] at [TIME]1319630553[/TIME] ---------------

Ok, as you may be able to tell, I'm new.

I've installed the xml, and left the timer at 15 for isbot.

However I got to plugin manager, and don't know where to add the two lines the readme speaks of. I need some stupid proof instructions.

In the readme file there are no instructions for editing the plugin other than the timer. There are instructions for installing the hook for this mod, in your "register" template. It's just one line you add.

Go AdminCP>Styles and Templates>Style Manager then on the skin you want to add this hook line too, choose "Edit Templates" from the corresponding drop-down menu.

From the resulting list of templates, find "Registration Templates" and double click on that to reveal them, then click on "register."

In the register template find:

And right under it add the following:

Then click "save."