| Author | Message | ||
| Ian Giffin (Admin)
Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 1237 Registered: 7-1997 Posted From: 24.239.12.139  Rating: N/A |
Hi folks, This message is directed at the many who try to register to the bulletin board system, but fail to be accepted. For those who have had difficulty with this process in the past, this is for you, too. Because the internet is what it is these days, many "robots" try to register on web sites so they can then capture everyone else's email addresses and then spam everyone. I mean this happens anyway, but it's worse if these robots were left to join this and other forums without a security level in place. (It's way more complicated than that, but I've tried to keep it simple). The security I have in place is that I have to personally approve each registration. I get roughly 250 to 300 of these each and every day. Of that number, there are only 2 or 3, maybe 4 that are legitimate requests. The rest are from "robots". Here's what I see in the administration pages where I get to approve or reject registrations - this is an actual screen shot:  The little magnifying glass allows me to see the details of the registrant, as shown below - again, an actual screen shot. This is the one that's 4th from the bottom:  As you can see, there's nearly nothing to indicate the legitimacy of the above registrant. "Robots" don't understand the rest of the questions so they leave them blank. But you're not a robot, so you CAN fill in the rest. Now look at the registrant below. It's the one from right at the bottom:  I'm only using this to illustrate the problem (Mike, sorry to target yours - welcome anyway!). The problem being that this registrant is legit, but looks almost identical to the robot generated registration request. Folks, after seeing zillions of these, I sometimes miss a legitimate one. Most often if it actually looks like it's a fake, as many in the top sample look, no sweat - delete. But if it looks like a good one, I pop the whole profile up to see if info has been filled in. If it's empty, it's usually a fake... but is it? So another few seconds and I can figure it out. But you can save me some time if you take just a moment to fill in the form - Uh, that's why the form is there!! So... to people registering. We want you on the board. No one hates you. I have nothing against you. You all meet the standards of being a member. I haven't banned anyone. But if you didn't make it through, look, I'm human and sometimes I delete you inadvertently. Help me by filling out the whole form. When you are finally registered, go in to your profile and delete the info you don't want people to see - I have no trouble with that. But you know what? We'd rather see those details so we don't keep having to guess where you are, how you can help, etc. So give old Uncle Ian a break and gimme as much as you can. Make my life easy. Get registered the first time. I want you here. Thank you. And when you do get here... welcome aboard. Enjoy :-) Ian www.busnut.com | ||
| Kevin Mossman (Ktmossman)
Registered Member Username: Ktmossman Post Number: 25 Registered: 9-2007 Posted From: 24.98.139.72 Rating: N/A |
Ian, you may have already considered this, but you might want to look into a capcha image system on the registration page to weed out the robotic entries. I had to put one onto my blog for the same reason. It REALLY cut down on the robotic postings. | ||
| Jim Gibson (River_rat)
Registered Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 38 Registered: 1-2009 Posted From: 75.95.96.192 Rating: N/A |
Ian, Thank you for all your work - it took me a few tries, but was worth the wait! Your efforts are what make this such a nice and friendly site - A BIG THANK YOU! Jim | ||
| Chuck Newman (Chuck_newman)
Registered Member Username: Chuck_newman Post Number: 342 Registered: 1-2005 Posted From: 99.0.41.3  Rating: N/A |
Ian, Humm, you're starting to sound like a post I made a few weeks ago. As Kevin says, CAPTCHA works very well. But in the interim, a simple script to filter and delete matching Username and Full Name would eliminate your manually scanning each input by almost two magnitudes according to your numbers. But I still can't get that darn bus .gif in my profile to load. | ||
| Ian Giffin (Admin)
Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 1239 Registered: 7-1997 Posted From: 24.239.13.27 Rating: |
There! Now quit your whinin'!! :-) Ian www.busnut.com | ||
| Chuck Newman (Chuck_newman)
Registered Member Username: Chuck_newman Post Number: 344 Registered: 1-2005 Posted From: 99.0.41.3 Rating: N/A |
Okie Dokie! What did I do wrong? And thank you, Sir. | ||
| Ian Giffin (Admin)
Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 1240 Registered: 7-1997 Posted From: 24.239.13.27 Rating: N/A |
Chuck, I changed your .gif to a .jpg I used to be able to get .gifs to work in the profile picture and the switch is set to accpt them, but the function just suddenly disappeared one day. I was getting a little weary, jumping up and down beside my bus wearing only my bra and shoes... er, uh, thanks to John MC9, the scallywag! Ian www.busnut.com | ||
| Bill Gerrie (Bill_gerrie)
Registered Member Username: Bill_gerrie Post Number: 262 Registered: 3-2006 Posted From: 216.198.139.38 Rating: N/A |
Ian Thanks for all your great work. Because you take the time to scan all the registrants and weed out the robots we are not getting any spam. Must be a real headache for you judging by the numbers you mentioned. Thanks from all of us. | ||
| Jack Conrad (Jackconrad)
Registered Member Username: Jackconrad Post Number: 1054 Registered: 12-2000 Posted From: 71.3.157.139  Rating: N/A |
Ian, I don't know what it is called or if it would help, but I am finding that frequently when I register at a new site there is a box with a few letters in it that are kinda difficult to read and I have to type them into a small box and submit this before I can be approved. I am assuming (yeah, yeah, I know about ass-u-me), that is to to block robots. Jack PS: thanks for all the work you put into this wonderful website. Jack | ||
| Dallas (Dal300)
Registered Member Username: Dal300 Post Number: 203 Registered: 3-2006 Posted From: 75.88.241.188 Rating: N/A |
Jack, That's called "Captcha" and it's an image, which most bots can't decipher because they don't see pictures, only fonts. | ||
| RJ Long (Rjlong)
Registered Member Username: Rjlong Post Number: 1543 Registered: 12-2000 Posted From: 98.192.173.82  Rating: N/A |
Ian - Besides the "Captcha" mentioned, what about making the city & state/province boxes "required" for registration? You know, just like name and username are now. Would the bots pick those up? Curious. . .  | ||
| Cullen Newsom (Cullennewsom)
Registered Member Username: Cullennewsom Post Number: 37 Registered: 2-2009 Posted From: 129.7.53.206 Rating: N/A |
I saw an interesting variant on captcha once that required you to solve a simple math problem. You might be able to have fun with it, and make folks answer a bus trivia question! |
