Cheap deals on flights.

[zuhane]

Yeah, these bots are really starting to piss me off. Is it not possible to use some kind of Captcha code
to stop them getting through? Where did they originate from in the first place?

[fruckert]

At least it's not like it was back in Winter of '09.
I think there was a bot post every hour.

I believe we got a Capthcha code in place after that happened.
Maybe we need some more security measures?
*shrugs*

[HobomasterXXX]

Anyone with admin rights and half a brain can install some decent security mods to help cut down the flow of bots a little. SMF is very modular.

[lilsniffs3]

Switch back to the previous forum. We rarely/never had bots then.

[Zerlina]

Bugs that piss off all 12 of us on this forum...

[fruckert]

Man, I love being a newbie

No idea what bugs were in PUB.
Except the quote bug which apparently made quotes start quoting the page source (if the old junk bin was any indication)

[WarxePB]

Cheap deals on flights? I'm so there!

[MissingName]

Can CAPTCHAs work? Is there a way to tell a human from a machine? Can people use games to separate humans from bots?

This is a bit interesting for games, as I've noted before, I've been asked by several game developers if it would make sense for them to use CAPTCHAs to catch bots.

If you've been following the tech news lately, you'll know that pretty much every CAPTCHA system has been broken. Google's, Yahoo's, your's, mine. They are all busted.

We do know that "in the long term" no one has built a machine that passes the Turing Test for AI...

of course, in the long run, we're all dead, as John Maynard Keynes noted.

The trick for CAPTCHAs to be useful operationally is that they are fast.

So, is there a FAST way to distinguish a person from a machine?

Especially, if we are trying to stop a malicious individual (or group) from beating the system.

First of all, there is the "degenerate attack" of outsourcing CAPTCHA beating to another country. It is true, in fact, that there are commercial services that will use paid staff to beat CAPTCHAs for you for a very modest fee.

... and the fees ARE pretty modest... about $0.002 per CAPTCHA which is wonderfully cheap.

The nightmare now is that a computer program to beat your CAPTCHA needs to be cheaper than $0.002 per CAPTCHA!

So, do I think a CAPTCHA can use a game to stop botting... no. The price for CAPTCHA outsourcing is far to low.

However, can a game itself be a good CAPTCHA for itself. Here, the answer is definitely yes. Mainly because games take more time than a CAPTCHA would allow.

Perhaps the interesting question is - How many seconds / minutes /.... does it take for a game to distinguish a real player from a bot... and is it worth it?

Perhaps a CAPTCHA would need to monitor our extended behavior and thereby certify that "at this moment, a person is present".
_______

In all seriousness, bots are annoying as hell, but I have no idea how to fix it.  All I can do is break stuff.

[HobomasterXXX]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1547

Install this go go

[zuhane]

We need someone with admin powers to read this. I hope this gets addressed!

[drenrin2120]

Is MissingName really just a bot? Have we been fools for this long? He must be attracting more bots by being here!

That's the most logical explanation.

[HobomasterXXX]

The one I linked could work rather well, I think. It connects to the Stop Forum Spam database ( a big *** database of bots that is constantly updated), and if a joining user matches any of the credentials on that list, it adds them to a list of users that require admin approval to fully register. Add a good captcha mod to that and we'll be golden.

[HobomasterXXX]

HEY I'M BUMPING THIS THREAD WITH GOOD CAUSE
I installed that mod I was nagging you guys to install onto my shitty little SMF2 forum I don't even use anymore, about a week or two ago. Went on today, saw this.

That's how many spambots it blocked from registering in the space of around 2 weeks.

[Archem]

Hey, if I was some kind of admin with some level of know-how, I'd be doing this.

I mean, if I wasn't some lazy schmoe.

[HobomasterXXX]

Anyone who has access to the admin panel can do this so easily. So so easily. Time to harass Razor I guess!