[wplug-plan] reCaptcha for preventing spam

Patrick Wagstrom pwagstro at andrew.cmu.edu
Wed May 30 16:19:32 EDT 2007


Vance Kochenderfer wrote:
> I do a good deal of browsing using Lynx, so I would like to see
> captchas used only when initially establishing an account or for
> anonymous edits*.  This way Lynx users could still log in after
> they've set up an account using a graphical browser.
> 
> I agree that the recaptcha sounds like a good implementation,
> plus it has an accessible audio alternative.
> 
> *Which currently aren't allowed, but probably could be if
> protected by a captcha.

If folks would read the documentation they'd see the following:

By default, CAPTCHAs are triggered on the following events:

     * New user registration
     * Anonymous edits that contain new external links
     * Brute-force password cracking

I looked at the source code[1] and saw that the plugin is VERY 
configurable.  We can put it on every edit, page creation, whatever.  We 
can also make it so certain accounts don't need to use the captcha. 
That way users who never left 1995[2] can still get their mediawiki on.

--Patrick

[1] 
http://recaptcha.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/recaptcha-plugins/mediawiki/ConfirmEdit.php

[2] 1995 was picked as about the time that I switched to using X full 
time.  It's also the time that the Oak technologies drivers finally 
became stable enough for XFree86.  Conincidence?  Yes.  I had an Oak 
card, but interweb over a 28.8 sucks.



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