Wow! New Forum Layout Looks Gorgeous!!

cuttime · Post by **cuttime** » Fri May 06, 2022 12:48 pm

Is there still a sign up verification question? If I recall it was something quite easy to guess, or Google. Perhaps something a bit more inscrutable, like something only a MOTU user would know.

EDIT- I just now tried a login in a private window and I see CAPTCHA is enabled, so I guess not. CAPTCHA doesn't seem to work too well! Perhaps a Black Magic spell for Astrologers would do the trick!

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Fri May 06, 2022 2:06 pm

cuttime wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 12:48 pmEDIT- I just now tried a login in a private window and I see CAPTCHA is enabled, so I guess not. CAPTCHA doesn't seem to work too well!

I just changed the settings to use a trickier CAPTCHA. If that doesn't cut back on the spam, there is an option to use Google ReCAPTCHA which is pretty good. It'll just take more time to configure.

dix · Post by **dix** » Sat May 07, 2022 3:53 pm

James Steele wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 2:06 pm
cuttime wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 12:48 pmEDIT- I just now tried a login in a private window and I see CAPTCHA is enabled, so I guess not. CAPTCHA doesn't seem to work too well!
I just changed the settings to use a trickier CAPTCHA. If that doesn't cut back on the spam, there is an option to use Google ReCAPTCHA which is pretty good. It'll just take more time to configure.

Clearly that didn’t help. The General Recording and Macintosh forums are still being inundated. I’m so sorry you have to deal with this James! In general is it helpful for you if we tag spam posts? Or is that just more noise for you?

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sat May 07, 2022 3:58 pm

It actually doesn’t help if you notify me. I just removed the ones you were talking about. It was all one individual so it was just one operation for me and it’s gone. You can’t necessarily tell that it didn’t help, because often times the spammers sign up for an account but don’t immediately spam. Sometimes they wait a day or so, so they may have signed up before I implemented the newer CAPTCHA. So I’ll wait and see. If I switch to the Google CAPTCHA it will probably take care of it but I’m waiting to see if I need to.

I also lined up someone to take a look at the mail issue for me. Hoping it’s not too expensive.

BobK · Post by **BobK** » Sun May 08, 2022 11:20 am

If you don't already have spam protection, consider CleanTalk spam prevention (one of several services they offer).

For years I've been getting contact form spam at my web site - maybe half a dozen a day (I didn't count). I guess it could be a lot worse - it only takes a second to delete the emails - but it's annoying.

A couple weeks ago I installed CleanTalk, and so far it's working as-advertised: I've had no spam, legit submissions have reached me, and the dashboard at their site shows that no legit submissions were blocked. (I think they keep a week's worth of records.)

The price is great - around $8/year for one site, IIRC.

The site says they offer spam protection for forums too.

I have no affiliation with them - just a satisfied customer (so far...).

Hope this helps!

YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Sun May 08, 2022 12:00 pm

I’ll look into it. I hate these scumbags. You want to see the worst of humanity. The internet brings them to our door every day.

BobK · Post by **BobK** » Sun May 08, 2022 12:36 pm

Yep. It's weird that the contact form spam is mostly - if not all - bots. I imagine it's the same for forums.

Over the years I tried reCaptcha v2 and invisible reCaptcha, and apparently the spambot programmers figured out how to trick or bypass it.

That's a cool thing about CleanTalk - it's invisible for real users. (I removed reCaptcha from the form.)

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