[Digital Jedi]

Originally Posted by eJM

Don't make people jump through hoops to use your site. Security is one thing, requiring anyone to first search Google to find the answer to your security question will only cause people to leave.

I'd hardly call it a hoop jump. If people coming to my site are interested in learning more about the site's subject, then how is directing them to one of the very basics of the subject a deterrent? If you've come to my site to learn more about Video Games, but looking up an easy to find answer makes you leave, then I can't imagine you were all that interested in learning in the first place. I once visited a boat site where the nospam question was in relation to motors and sizes. I didn't have a clue what that was, but I really needed to get registered. I Googled the question, found it and got in. And it was a much harder question then who makes PlayStation.

It has been proven over and over that it doesn't take a difficult question to thwart bots. Just "keep it simple stupid." It's the site owner/manager that should be doing the work (staying on top of the security game), not the user you want to visit your site. Make it too simple for them and too hard for the bots. It ain't a difficult concept. It's an ego that always seems to get in the way of simplicity. Most folks already know you have smarts - you had enough to develop the site. Don't rub it in with inane questions.

Your still under the presumption that this is a difficult question. If your into video games even in the most marginal sense, you already know the answer. If your not even remotely interested in Video Games, then its highly unlikely that you would be trying to join such a forum for legitimate purposes. Even a casual gamer already knows the answer to that question. Sony is kind of a well know company.

Maybe on your site. I only need one question.

Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of the mod. I'm sure on a more conservative forum, only one is needed (for now). Certain sites are more heavily targeted by such bots, and single question can eventually be worked around.

I want members to join my site. If I don't make it easy enough for them, they'll join another site. It seems to work for me. I have ZERO spam registrations - I never have had to kill one since installing this hack.

I have a specialty forum, devoted to TCG gaming. I don't really need it to be that easy, in that I only need one question. Besides, what color is the sky, what color is a banana and Darth Vader is from _____ Wars aren't exactly brain teasers for the crowd we draw.

Your also under the, very common, impression that most vB.com members seem to be under, in that all of us are looking to draw each-and-every single member we can get our grubby little hands on. And that's simply not true. A good portion of us would rather have a conservative, active membership of people who at least have basic intelligence to look up who Darth Vader is, then a million page memberlist of users who register and never return. It's a matter of necessity. That's why the mod was created to support multiple questions. One question wouldn't do much for forums that are hit by 30+ spam bots on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by jalmz

hi guys,

i got 1 spam using this anti machine.... maybe they hack this mod...

There isn't a form of spam protection that's 100% fool proof. A real person can very easily register an account for his bot to post in, or he can post the stuff himself.