[Dave]

I also use reCAPTCHA on my forum (700k+ posts), Cloudflare, and not a single anti-spam plugin. I encouter maybe 1 bot registration each 1-3 months.

[ozzy47]

Well how did you two add the recaptcha to your sites? I would be interested in checking it out.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by ozzy47

Well how did you two add the recaptcha to your sites? I would be interested in checking it out.

I'm using the old reCAPTCHA, the one which comes with vBulletin.

[ozzy47]

Ahh, yeah this was about their newest release.

[KGodel]

I'm also curious if anyone has added the new ReCaptcha successfully. Many of us would like to know how. ^^

[kh99]

This doesn't look like it should be very difficult. I'll try to throw something together if no one else is working on it. It might be a little more difficult to integrate it with the existing human verify system, but it shouldn't be difficult to just add it to registration.

[ozzy47]

Yeah Kevin that would be cool, as I don't have time to work on it.

[kh99]

Originally Posted by ozzy47

Yeah Kevin that would be cool, as I don't have time to work on it.

Ok, yeah, you didn't sound too excited about it. Well, maybe until that last post.

[KGodel]

Thanks a bunch mate. As always I appreciate the stuff you do around here for us not-so-knowledgeable people. ^^

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by CAG CheechDogg

I don't use any of those spam stoppers you guys are talking about and I have been using recaptcha now since 2008 ... in the last year and some months I have had (0) ZERO... that's right zero spam accounts on my site ...

How have I accomplished that? IP blocks from countries that are know for spamming ... I don't need anyone from these countries on my site to begin with ... yes I might be blocking some players and gamers from accessing my site, but the numbers are minimal and not worth my site and forums getting hit by spammers and the sacrifice is worth it ....

I used to have Kunena forums before and I had a forum spam stopper running on that ... the amount of spam accounts being created was just insane! ... I look at my error logs maybe 3-4 times a week on my cPanel and I take note of the new IPs that hit my site's register.php file ... now I did use BOP5S Rename register.php by BOP5 mod and since then not only has my site gotten faster in loading, but I have also seen less spiders and bots hitting my site's resources and I haven't seen a single attempt on my new register.php file after I changed it's name ...

I posted in another thread that scripts that are made to battle spammers might actually invite more spammers to your site because of keywords used in the script that spammers and hackers look for in such scripts to battle and protect against them ... so far my theory on my site has proven that I am onto something ...

I used spam o matic when it first came out and the day after I installed that on my site the number of hits by spammers and bad bots more than tripled ... I was just setting up my new vb forums so I uninstalled it and while I made the changes to my new theme, added a few mods here and there and some custom work on my site in general , it took me maybe 3 weeks to a month .. after than I never used anything to fight against spam except for the recaptcha and I have been fine ...

What works for me might not work for everyone ... but I also do spend a couple of hours each day monitoring my site and forums and that is probably the biggest reason why I don't get spammers hitting my site like other people do ...

The anti-spam goodies we recommend are all home grown here at vBorg, and are for the average folks out there who might not be as technically sagacious as yourself.

[ozzy47]

Right, and banning countries or IP blocks might not work for everyone. A site such as this, can not use that.

[FunCaptcha]

Hey guys, just wanting to pop in and add to the discussion. I'm from FunCaptcha, a team dedicated to providing an alternative to the traditional text based CAPTCHAs.

Our lead designer actually goes into minute detail on the very topic you guys have been discussing here. It's a good read and should bring to light a few concerns people currently have with the ReCAPTCHA changes.

Any and all feedback is welcome!

[kh99]

OK, I've posted a version here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=315960 but it's for vb4. I was part way through working on this in vb4 before I realized that the original request was for vb3. But vb3 looks to be the same except for the template, so I'll just need to work on that and I should be able to have a version later today.

Meanwhile if anyone wants to try out the vb4 version, let me know how it goes.

[kh99]

The vb3 version is ready (I hope): http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=315964

[Zachery]

I had a really long written response for this thread, but I'd really just like to comment on a few things.

Keep working towards beating spam, its the only way we'll ever stay ahead of them.
However, for however many man hours we can devote to beat them, they can devote 100x more than we can.
Solutions always work for a while, and they'll continue to work until such a time they get too popular, esp if they're stagnant (not evolving, not pushing forward).