[wplug-internet] Wiki CAPTCHA update

Vance Kochenderfer vkochend at nyx.net
Thu Sep 15 04:20:28 EDT 2011


It is unfortunate, but reCAPTCHA seems to be totally broken at
this point.  The spambots keep adding pages to the wiki, and it's
not like they have to guess repeatedly - they solve the CAPTCHA on
the first try.  Cleaning up after them is getting tiresome.

I have therefore updated the ConfirmEdit extension on the wiki and
configured it to use QuestyCaptcha.  Reading around the net,
others seem to have had success with it where reCAPTCHA has
failed.  We will see how well it works for us.  If effective, I
may be able to relax some of the settings (currently, any
anonymous edit triggers a CAPTCHA; we could reduce this to only
edits that have an external link or that create a new wiki page).

QuestyCaptcha is configured with a set of questions, and users
must supply the answer.  Note that the installed version only
recognizes one valid answer (case-insensitive) for each question.
So you have to choose something with one completely unambiguous
answer, and one that should be obvious to any human.

I have started with the following five^H^H^H^H three questions:

What is the abbreviated name for the organization this wiki is
about? (five letters)

What city is home to WPLUG? (see the About page if you don't know)

What does the 'L' in WPLUG stand for?

I am happy to take suggestions for other questions/answers, or any
general comments on this approach.  Testing would also be
appreciated.

Vance Kochenderfer        |  "Get me out of these ropes and into a
vkochend at nyx.net          |   good belt of Scotch"    -Nick Danger


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