Captcha to Start New Account

I think Mibba should add a Captcha or similar feature for when you sign up for an account.

Additionally, some websites can recognize when you are posting the same message multiple times and it usually brings up a Captcha if they do.

I don't know how coding works or if we can add these. Just some suggestions to cut down on the spam bots.

I second this. It might also cut down the amount of duplicate accounts as well. Personally I believe that the Dujo should have started using captchas after the spam bots started out posting all of us. That should have been the first warning that we needed something.

I agree.

I agree with this. If it works for other sites than it would work well for Mibba.

I agree.

@ gonna hear dru roar.
With Facebook captcha didn't work that well and it still creates problems.

Okay, I agree, but I don't want everything to be Captcha-ed. Just when making an account and a few things, not every time I try to post a blog or chapter for a story.

aradia megido.:

Okay, I agree, but I don't want everything to be Captcha-ed. Just when making an account and a few things, not every time I try to post a blog or chapter for a story.

I definitely agree. Captcha are the most irritating things on the planet and I hate having to use them, but I definitely agree with having them on the site when you go to create an account as long as they don't need to be put in to post stories or post in the forums or anything. Only problem is, it only works if the spambots are computers, because if it's a person then they can easily bypass that (although why actual people would spend their time spamming a creative writing website, I have no idea).

Same with aradia and dougie, I would be super annoyed if captcha popped up every single time it thought you were being "suspicious", but I don't know what algorithm other sites use but I know it can suck when I just want to do something similar and all of a sudden some silly captcha.

I like the idea of having captcha when someone makes an account. I think it will help with the amount of spam bots that were causing so much of a problem.

I would love to see this implemented for when you create a new account.

We actually spoke about this before - during a time when we were getting about 5 really active spammers a day - and I came up with a long list of stuff we could do (like setting some kind of "qualifier" for when users could start posting on the boards or not automatically giving new users the ability to post comments/threads and having) and Dujo was like "Why don't we just add a captcha to sign up page?" - which was infinitely easier and sensible - and he did...but then we were still getting spammers, so I don't think it actually worked.

@ Audrey T
I think Captcha only work if it's a computer-generated spammer (something to do with it not being able to read the jumbled-up encryption, I don't know. It's been over 3 years since I last sat a computing course). If it's a person that is doing the spamming, then they can bypass it the same as all of the other members would be able to so maybe that's why it didn't work? I don't know, it's the most viable explanation I can think of.

Ah. Well, it was a worth a shot.

Totally just saw two pages of Spam in the blogs...
We need this.

Boosting this in light of the last couple days' issues with spambots.

Looking through the thread and seeing how there has been an attempt before, maybe we could try a different kind of catchpa system? Like something where we could get some sort of brief automated questionnaire from an admin, asking the user creating an account what they like most about writing, or what they're most interested in accomplishing on Mibba. Then their account wouldn't be activated unless they answer those questions. Spambots probably wouldn't bother trying to come up with a complete answer, as it's not worth the time.
And as a bonus, it might be a neat introduction to new users, as they'd feel like the community is taking an interest in them.
Maybe not exactly the way I put it, but it's a suggestion I just came up with

@ I feel insane
I feel like a normal captcha wouldn't work in these cases because they're people, not bots, but your idea might work. Only issue would be that there could be a delay in signing up depending on the availability of admins to check through all the submissions, especially if the spammers did still bother and just spammed the questionnaire part.

@ I feel insane
I quite like that idea. We're online every single day so I'm sure we'd find some time to file through submissions and 'approve' accounts. Perhaps we could have it so once you register, you fill out the questionnaire, and then you can log in and do everything but post material onto the site. So new users can still find that NC-17 story they signed up to read, subscribe to their favourite author who came here from another site, and do whatever else they'd like, but just not post stories, poems, blogs, articles, or post in the forum until an admin gives the okay. That way people shouldn't lose interest in the site while they wait for the account's approval, but we'd still catch the spammers before they can post their spam.