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A very good (and free) captcha class in PHP (Recommendation)

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Carol Haynes:
Rather than using annoying captchas why not have a random general knowledge question from a list. Choose one word answer questions that anyone with half a brain knows the answer to but bots can't do. Helps the visually impaired than because they can use a screen reader to work out what is required!

Renegade:
Rather than using annoying captchas why not have a random general knowledge question from a list. Choose one word answer questions that anyone with half a brain knows the answer to but bots can't do. Helps the visually impaired than because they can use a screen reader to work out what is required!
-Carol Haynes (April 16, 2011, 12:13 PM)
--- End quote ---

But what would that be?

The problem is that problems like that (e.g. CAPTCHAs) are more easily solved by computers.

Lists are easily broken. :(

Carol Haynes:
Lists are easily broken if they are in common use - but how about  individual lists designed for a specific website?

You could have a long list of very stupid questions like:

what colour is blue grass?

To a human the answer is obvios but not to a computer. If that question appears on one website how long is it going to take a bot to crack it?

If the website is not intended to be for locals only then you cold ask very specific questions that only locals can answer.

vlastimil:
I do not consider questions better than awkwardly twisted words. It shall not be the user's task to prove that they are human.

Spam only works because it is automated and stock CMS solutions are low hanging fruits, especially the free ones like Wordpress or Drupal. By adding a bit of a non-standard code, the problem is solved. A spammer will not bother writing custom script for just one website. And if they do, the webmaster can react by changing a little detail. The spammer has to spam 100s of webs, while the web owner only has 1 (or a few) to care about. Web masters, who care, win easily.

(Of course, if a web site owner has dozens of sites, then I understand they would want to use captchas. In that case, I have my doubts about the quality of the sites. It takes a lot of time to maintain and add valuable content to just a single web site.)

mahesh2k:
Rather than using annoying captchas why not have a random general knowledge question from a list.
--- End quote ---
Lists if are limited in number can be easily broken because there are sites which pays users to break captcha for 0.01$/captcha for succesful 50 breaks and 0.001 if there are mistakes. Plus there are softwares like xrummer and scrapebox which are built so effectively that they can create mass accounts to spam on forums, blog comment etc. These softwares attack at the rate 1000 comments per minute or more depending on server strength/software type. Random stupid questions are likely to work but they're limited in number and if humans are cracking captchas for low cost then they're not effective at all.

Splashpress media, Demand media and many other webmaster who employ writers to write on their sites use captchas or IP block softwares to get rid of comments which are junk or attack content. It's useless to think about non-paying reader to your content sites reputation. You've right to protect your property regardless of readers who moan/whine against anti-spam solution. That's business. Considering the attention span of readers, there are hardly any dedicated readers that sticks to any blog or (free) content website for long. Then there is google algorithm change which hurts site based on spam comment/bot attacks on forums etc. All other SEO factors are there as well which expect webmaster to get rid of that garbage with or without traffic. Captcha is the solution to consistent spam problem, so if it works we need to use it. Why bother about freebie readers if they can't understand your problem ?

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