Sorry, I just wanted to rant a bit 😉
Got an email from someone asking about MINIsOnTop and the two year MINI Cooper lease raffle; I replied then soon after got a “challenge” email which required me to contort my vision and decode hidden text as complicated as this – actually worse than this, but I re-tried after the first failed attempt …
Some of the other MINI blogs I visit via GoMotoring (Mark’s wonderful one-stop-MINI-site) are almost as infuriating … TwistyBitz doesn’t remember me from one visit to another, GeorgeCo requires me to log-in (to someone else’s website!) and the Blogger sites require BOTH decoding skewy text and logging in with my Google account (but then they don’t remember from one visit to the next).
Meanwhile Josh simply asks me what color an orange is – that’s easy to answer (and is the inspiration for “red” on my weblog); such a simple answer still seems to defeat almost all spam (I’ve had 2 get past in eight months), so why do these weblogs and email users insist on making life so difficult for everyone else? My solution is typically not to bother commenting …
M&I / GBMINI 
I know that this sort of challenge-thing is now part of many packages people adopt for blogs & BBs. I just moved my Sailing BB over from phpBB to SMF and now have the LSD-Challenge Recognition module by default for registering newbies.
Problem with with the simply-elegant approach that Josh and you use is that it can be beat for automatic use (if one is determined) by a little human intervention. I suppose that would not normally occur, however, unless your the site was an unusually valuable target or was not administered very often.
I sometimes turn the word verification off on my blogger account and only get a couple of spam comments a week, not a big deal. Also when commenting on Blogger sites, you can choose your identity as “other” and just type your name and site if you want instead of logging in. Still a pain if it doesn’t remember you.
Amen…it’s getting bad as this method starts saturating many web sites. Fine for high-security items like bank accounts, but for personal blogs it is infuriating, especially when they remember you but check anyway. And often it really is impossible to decipher.
Email should have been redesigned from the ground up years ago. As it is still at the root an open unverified and unsecured protocol, now 99% of email of traffic is spam. So much real mail gets blocked now that it has gone from the preferred method of communication to the most unreliable. Same goes with cell phones. Back to written letters and copper land lines I guess.
Lets all figure this one out since most of us run WP and are hosted on Site5. I’m all for making it easier for everyone of us!
Hi Mark! 🙂
GateKeeper seems to be very effective for me, and for Josh, and requires typing something that you can easily determine (eg: Josh says “what color is an orange”). I’d prefer that over this decoding squiggles business.
Logging in to Blogger/Google would be a good scheme, IF it remembered you – but it never seems to.
As Ian knows I use iWeb, Apple’s website program, with it I have no choice in the Spam Prevention end. It’s just part of the program. I too think the “What Color is a Pickle” “Hint: Green” is much easier but since I don’t have time to learn nor do I want to learn all those other programs I’m stuck. It don’t remember me either! Mark has offered help with WP but I like iWeb as I’m in control, so to speak.
At least iWeb’s spam prevention letters are easy to read. I’m hoping Apple makes some changes in a few areas with iWeb but so far nada. Like allowing PayPal buttons and such. It’s a major pain for me to keep those buttons over at the Store side of Twisty as iWeb doesn’t allow them, officially. A few smart Apple folk got around that and shared their knowledge with all. But it’s still a lot of work and I usually must do it after 1AM so as not to disrupt my site during bizz hours.
To me iWeb is a godsend. I doubt I’d have a website if not for it. An Apple store employee took a look at my site during a Apple iWeb Store Event class and said the he was amazed at my ingenuity.
If it hadn’t been for a lot of great suggestions by you Ian, a savvy Apple store employee who directed me to a Rowan Cottage’s website and a few others Twisty would never been able to exist as is in a Microsoft environ as well as it does.
There seems to be nothing I can do about it, but its only a few letters and I do appreciate the time anyone takes to comment and type those few letters in. And, I have never had any spam.
=;¬) … RB/Twisty
Hey Ian.
I got totally hammered the other day with spam and am trying to figure out how to recover. I’ve clamped down so far to destroy usability.
I like your simple solution, can you send me some info on how you implemented it — I have a really basic knowledge of using WordPress. You can also PM me at NAM, I’m gnhovis. Thanks.
–GeorgeCo
George,
GateKeeper is what Josh and I use and is recommended and quite simple to install in WordPress:
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/wordpress/wp-gatekeeper.html
Thanks. Sort of an Ockham’s razor kind of thing — the simplest solution tends to be the best.
Can anyone tell Ticketmaster that there are other options..?
I detest that site. I almost always need 2 or 3 attempts at their stupid squiggly writing thing and my vision is pretty good. If only there was some other way to get concert tickets, I’d use it in a heartbeat. The Feds went after Microsoft for monopolistic practices… could they have a go at Ticketmaster..?
The most ironic thing is the amount of junk mail I get from Ticketmaster..! They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
Sorry to sidetrack the rant, but it’s along the same lines.
Ian,
In response to your original problem that sparked this rant, I hope you didn’t make any extra effort to decode the writing and reply to the email.
I’m pretty sure any of these challenge systems can have a ‘white list’ which the person sending you the email could have used to add your email address. Don’t the good ones automatically add anyone who *you* write *to* so that you can get replies easily.
MOT is organised by volunteers and there is plenty of information on the website and in threads on MINI forums. It seems a bit lazy and arrogant to expect you to jump through hoops to provide the same information in a personalised format..!
Yes Gavin – that’s probably what set me off ranting in the first place 😉