Zandronum

Due to a massive swarm of bots, and captcha either not working or humans are solving the captcha, registration has to be approved by an Administrator.

If you have any problems, please see #staff

Registration Error wrote:Please correct the following errors before continuing:
Please fill out the image verification code to continue. Please enter the code exactly how it appears in the image.

It seems that the system is working as intended, so it could have human intervention.
Not all spam is done by bots, most in fact are human, but they would probably just copy+paste something in.

Do they get paid to do this? lol

They say the best anti-spam is to make the registration process unique. I have a few ideas what I can do here in case they are bots. (Or bots that farm captcha solving to humans.)

This is the best thing to do, but do you think the admins will be able to keep up with the amount of people signing up?

What about some unique doom questions that bots can't get (like dropdown menus), ridiculous captchas...etc
Actually approval doesn't sound too bad

-=Dark-Assassin=- wrote:

Registration Error wrote:Please correct the following errors before continuing:
Please fill out the image verification code to continue. Please enter the code exactly how it appears in the image.

It seems that the system is working as intended, so it could have human intervention.
Not all spam is done by bots, most in fact are human, but they would probably just copy+paste something in.

Yes. I had read somewhere that a lot of bots now use human verification methods to get through captcha.

Ænima wrote: Do they get paid to do this? lol

Unsure. I would say yes as it is a repetitive task and it allows advertisement.

Blzut3 wrote: They say the best anti-spam is to make the registration process unique. I have a few ideas what I can do here in case they are bots. (Or bots that farm captcha solving to humans.)

A doom related question was suggested.

WhiteAce wrote: This is the best thing to do, but do you think the admins will be able to keep up with the amount of people signing up?

Yes, I am able to keep up with registrations. I have TheToxicAvenger helping me filter out bots so I know which to activate and which to delete for the time being.

Watermelon wrote: What about some unique doom questions that bots can't get (like dropdown menus), ridiculous captchas...etc
Actually approval doesn't sound too bad

It's tedious but it was a last minute decision when we were getting 24 bots an hour on the forums here.

It really shows how bad advertisement is now. It's everywhere and you can't get away from it. But as long as there's these forms of advertisement, there are ways to block it. Soon you won't be able to flush your toilet without an ad popping up.

Metal wrote:Soon you won't be able to flush your toilet without an ad popping up.

This probably happens in Japan. :P

I have a special hatred of invasive advertising. (Bad enough on the small amounts of television I watch, at least those are entertaining sometimes.) Sadly they must be getting some kind of returns on this crap or they'd stop.

A site I co-admin has to deal with russian spammers on the forum (less so with plugins), and clothing retailers in the comment areas (which can pile up like crazy). I can do nothing but delete spam and keep pretty busy. :/

I do appreciate that services like AdBlock are building exception lists for respectable advertisers.

Yeah, it is really depressing that it's come to this. Still, it is more productive than having to ban 30 bots in a day (I think I had killed 33 by the time this had gone into effect), and at this point they can't post; they just end up being sitting targets.

The Toxic Avenger wrote: Yeah, it is really depressing that it's come to this. Still, it is more productive than having to ban 30 bots in a day (I think I had killed 33 by the time this had gone into effect), and at this point they can't post; they just end up being sitting targets.

If you think thats bad, a site actually got taken over by bots a while ago since the admin says he couldn't be bothered with their bull, should see the mass amount of ads on that site, both threads about it and pop-ups on the site.

That's precisely what we're looking to prevent. I've seen what they can do when they're not dealt with quickly and severely.

The Toxic Avenger wrote: That's precisely what we're looking to prevent. I've seen what they can do when they're not dealt with quickly and severely.

Which is a good thing, i'd hate to see something as good as this get lost to some bots with no soul.

I'd be more afraid of bots pushing viagra.

Boko wrote: I'd be more afraid of bots pushing viagra.

Thats the thing, some kids actually sign up here some bot could easily send a sexual message, the kid would run to their parents, and then this forum would get the blame, even if he shouldn't be on the internet, some people just don't care anymore.

WhiteAce, I think that situtation would be why when you sign up theres a Terms of Service agreement....

Boko wrote: WhiteAce, I think that situtation would be why when you sign up theres a Terms of Service agreement....

People can just skip through it, I know I did on skulltag, read parts of it and skipped the rest.

This http://www.getelastic.com/6-captcha-alt ... onversion/ poped up in mind. A lot of these alternatives are probably already coded somewhere around.

so as for those "doom-specific questions" (which could very well require some research):

• Which map in Doom 2 has two names? (MAP11)
• Which monsters leave corpses, but cannot be resurrected? (Archvile, Spider Mastermind, Cyberdemon)
• How many rockets does it usually take to kill a baron of hell? (5)
• Can you turn when doing SR50? (no)
• What are the spheres in Doom 2? (soulsphere, blursphere/partial invisibility (either work), invulnerability sphere, megasphere)
• How many weapons are in Doom 2? (9)

some suggestions

Some of those questions would be deter human registration as well. :P

Ijon Tichy wrote: Can you turn when doing SR50? (no)

It depends. In order to SR-50 you must max out the strafe axis while also maxing the forward axis. This can be done by combining the keyboard turn and strafe keys, or can be done by strafing with a joystick or mouse axis. If you do the latter, then you can turn just fine.

I'd omit that question. I feel it would turn away a lot of non-competitive players.