This guest post is by Sonia Jackson.
People have trouble with other people using automatic software to register with their blog and create phony accounts. They also have problems with people using their comment box to add links and advertising. This is why plugins were created to stop this type of SPAM. This article covers some of them.
– SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam plug-in:
If you are not aware of the CAPTCHA program yet, all it is a small program that randomly shows images to the user. The image will have a code in it, which a person needs to type in. If they type in the correct code then they are allowed continue onto whatever they were trying to access. If they enter the wrong code they are not allowed to continue on (access what they were trying to do).
The reason why this stops most spam registrations is because spam registrations are controlled by robot programs. The less advanced robot programs are not able to get past the CAPTCHA bit.
There are more advanced robot programs that can get around CAPTCHA. It is in-fact easy if you know how, nevertheless there are millions (literally) of less advanced robots that are unable to get around CAPTCHA. The SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam plug-in stops these robots in their paths, and makes spamming your blog a lot harder.
The reason the less advanced robot programs (bots) cannot get around the CAPTCHA is because the bots need something to read, in order for them to progress, but an image gives nothing to read, so the bots fail.
SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam plug-in allows you to stop people from spamming your comment box, your lost password or registration section, or you login section. The comments box CAPTCHA is the best application because it stops bots adding links into your comments. Other than that there is not pressing need for the CAPTCHA, unless you are having a lot of trouble with people creating phony accounts. It is compatible with WP, BuddyPress and WPMU. This plug-in is free.
Demo
– Sabre:
Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine (Sabre). This allows you to do what the plug-in above does, but allows you a little more freedom to customize it. You can add your CAPTCHA, but you can select its background complexity.
Why make it more complex?
There are some clever clogs who think they can get around a CAPTCHA program by having a piece of software read the text on an image by taking a screen print and using identification software. It is a very long (and frankly overly complex) way to get around the CAPTCHA, and even though there are easier ways to get around CAPTCHA, clearly some burks have created the software to read screen images for their CAPTCHA codes.
As you can imagine, a piece of software cannot think for its self (yet), so the more complex the CAPTCHA background is, then the harder it is for the image reading robot to read it.
Do not forget however that a complex CAPTCHA image is also harder for the user to read, and it becomes very frustrating, very quickly. So start with the most simply CAPTCHA device and add complexity later, if bots are still giving you trouble.
Demo
– Stop Spammer Registrations Plug-in:
This boringly predictably named software is actually one of the most compressive tools for stopping SPAM. They say that they stop 99% of all SPAM. It is probably a gross exaggeration, but you can see why people may be inclined to believe it.
The plug-in does have safeguards that are comprehensive enough to cover almost every angle. The plug-in works more like a virus checker than it does a SPAM stopper.
It works to preemptively stop a bot, before it has even started. It does things like checking the IP address almost as soon as the link to the registration is clicked, and also does things such as automatically banning long email addresses. It is a very clever plug-in.
Demo
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