A New Solution for Forum Spammers

We recently implemented a new solution to keep spammers off the board that appears to be working VERY effectively! The solution is very simple. In addition to image verification, a new members is asked one of three very easy Star Wars questions:

Fill in the missing word in this famous Boba line from the Empire Strikes Back - "He's no good to me _____."

Fill in the missing word in this famous Vader line from the Empire Strikes Back - "If you only knew the _____ of the dark side."

Fill in the missing word in this famous Obi-Wan line from A New Hope - "May the _____ be with you."

This is NOT a test of a new member's Star Wars knowledge, as we believe almost anyone would be able to answer these questions, but has been put in place to thwart spambots that are capable of cracking our image verification security feature. So far, it appears this change has completely eliminated spambots from being able to sign up. If this continues, we will take away the waiting period we implemented for new members that doesn't allow them to post for 24 hours. I would like to thank eighteendelta for pushing the administration to find a better solution than spending copious amounts of time deleting the hordes of spammers that sign up daily.

D

Sounds like a top-notch idea!

Yea, these spambots run on automatic, by filling out the basic information that the typical forum requires to make an account. Implimenting a "human" required field throws them off.

-tubachris

Sounds like a great plan. I am going to mention this to my hubby. He is takes care of these types of things on the ocsws.com/forum.

This IS a great forum!! Everyone here does a wonderful job maintaining and monitoring it!

Cool idea! Star Wars Mad Libs!! :lol
Hopefully it'll continue to work.

Fantastic idea! I think I got all three right too.

Answers:

1. Fred

2. Flowers

3. Schwartz

:lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MandalorFett

Fantastic idea! I think I got all three right too.

Answers:

1. Fred

2. Flowers

3. Schwartz

:lol

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I agree great idea! I need to tell the admin on our Garrison Forums...

And MandalorFett - No, you are wrong.

1 and 2 need to be switched! ;) Honest mistake! :lol

For those running vbulletin, this mod is a free plugin from vbulletin.org.

You can download it for your own board by clicking the link below.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828

And stop giving away the answers! The bots will pick those up and then we will be back at square one! ;)

On a serious note, does anyone feel that these questions might be too difficult or too obscure? We welcome all people to this board, rabid fans and casual browsers alike. We don't want to use this feature to keep well-intentioned members out.

great idea. i've been meaning to do similar on the neg events request form. the route i was going to take was a picture of a character and a dropdown with which one it is... i like the questions though!

The Dent,
Questions #2, and #3 seem to be pretty universal to anyone that likes Star Wars. Question #1 is easy for us Fett-Heads, but a new member who is coming here to learn about Jango Fett or Zam Wessell may not know the answer.

Personally, I say if they don't know all Boba's movie quotes, then blast 'em! That's just me though. :lol

Such a simple yet ingenious way to fix the problem. Much respect.

-x

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MandalorFett

The Dent,
Questions #2, and #3 seem to be pretty universal to anyone that likes Star Wars. Question #1 is easy for us Fett-Heads, but a new member who is coming here to learn about Jango Fett or Zam Wessell may not know the answer.

Personally, I say if they don't know all Boba's movie quotes, then blast 'em! That's just me though. :lol

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They are only required to answer one of the three, so they should be able to answer at least one of them...

IMO, Everyone who has seen Star Wars or hasn't lived in a cave their whole life should know at least #3...

I don't think people would be here, trying to make a Star Wars costume, if they didn't at least know the answers to those questions..:)

So..how do these spambots work anyways, I mean, I just don't get it.

Ingenious idea Dent! :D :D :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ItsThatGuy

They are only required to answer one of the three, so they should be able to answer at least one of them...

IMO, Everyone who has seen Star Wars or hasn't lived in a cave their whole life should know at least #3...

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Well, to quote The Dent, "a new members is asked one of three very easy Star Wars questions:," which means they're asked one of them. Not all three are given and only one answered. It sounds as if they would be chosen randomly, so someone could just get #1.

Just a thought bro.

Wait, you forgot one. What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

NO! This will not happen. Stop it, stop it now!

that is a very great idea...people will definitely beable to answer atleast one of the three..

but do they get a second and third shot if they keep getting em wrong?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MandalorFett

The Dent,
Questions #2, and #3 seem to be pretty universal to anyone that likes Star Wars. Question #1 is easy for us Fett-Heads, but a new member who is coming here to learn about Jango Fett or Zam Wessell may not know the answer.

Personally, I say if they don't know all Boba's movie quotes, then blast 'em! That's just me though. :lol

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MandalorFett

Well, to quote The Dent, "a new members is asked one of three very easy Star Wars questions:," which means they're asked one of them. Not all three are given and only one answered. It sounds as if they would be chosen randomly, so someone could just get #1.

Just a thought bro.

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You know what though? If they can't get #1, they can go back and rewatch 'Empire. They can even fast forward to Boba Fett's part (he's in it for like less then 10 minutes) and get the answer. If they can't get to their video collection, they can google the quote. I wouldn't change the questions.



Phil