New CAPTCHA

[EWT]

On the main page in the adminCP, it tells you what users have registered, but have not activated their account(if you have user account activation on)...and there is a user prune section that lets you removed users depending on certian variables. 8)

I'm not quite following you. What I wrote suggested a method that initially takes away the ability for spammers to hit-n-run regardless of how account activation is set.

[EXreaction]

On the main page in the adminCP, it tells you what users have registered, but have not activated their account(if you have user account activation on)...and there is a user prune section that lets you removed users depending on certian variables. 8)

I'm not quite following you. What I wrote suggested a method that initially takes away the ability for spammers to hit-n-run regardless of how account activation is set.

Ya, I don't think that you are able to remove the website links and that until the user reaches a certian post count...I haven't seen anything like that...though it should be pretty easy to do...

When you log in to the adminCP, there is a section on the main page that tells you what users have not activated their account(if you have user activation on)...and lets you select which ones you want and delete them...so its pretty easy to watch over them...

And there is a user pruning section...you can have it remove all users that have 0 posts(or whatever you want) and have registered before a date that you pick...


Those two are not as good as removing the extra parts until they have a certian number of posts...but it definatly is a lot nicer than what phpBB2 has...and it makes it pretty easy to check up on unactivated/nonposting users...

[Cheater512]

There are some brilliant images here.
I'll start thinking of new ideas and try to add my own.

[NNO-Stephen]

those rainbow images, and even the b&w variant are quite difficult to read.

[MKruer]

I had this idea but I am not sure how feasible it is. Basically it’s a CAPTCHA the requires user intervention to be decoded. The idea was to create a 3d construct elements that when aligned properly would revile the word. Sort of like the illusionary puzzles. If you are not looking in the right direction, it will not look like anything, but once aligned it will revile the word.

[Eelke]

Do you mean one of those images where you get to see a 3D image if you can get your eyes to focus in the right spot behind the actual image? I personally have been able to properly see one of those images exactly once. I'm sure many other people have difficulty with it. I guess that's going to scare away a lot of users.

What's more, being completely and blissfully unaware of the algorithms required for producing such an image, it wouldn't surprise me if it were actually quite easy for a computer to reverse them.

[MKruer]

No, think it of this way. You have one vertical Line an a short horizontal line, you would rotate that image until it forms an L. its comprised of two different objects, its this rotation that correctly aligns the objects to create a word.

I though of another way as well.

Basically it consists of 3 or more images each with what would appear to be random markings on them. But when combined with the other images, some of those marking will line up to produce an image of a word.

[Cheater512]

Actually I think the algorithms are rather easy (do you think those magic eye books are done by hand? ) and a computer would have difficulty undoing it because it requires two eyes.

Of course it would be a lot easier than the harder ones.

[Wernight]

Actually I think the algorithms are rather easy (do you think those magic eye books are done by hand? ) and a computer would have difficulty undoing it because it requires two eyes.

Of course it would be a lot easier than the harder ones.

Diffuculty undoing it? Not really difficult. A bit yes, but the problem is that most people can't read it. It's called stereogram (an exemple here: http://www.beroux.com/?id=8).

The 3-D puzzle sounds nice as the computer would have to check for symbols every rotation untill it find that one of them looks like a letter more then the others. The problem is that is requires some dynamic HTML or some way to show 3D generated on the client (an not a server generated image). Interresting idea still I find. The generation of such 3D images isn't that hard. A Java could handle it. Server generate a random string and a number of points in 3D for them, send it to the client that display them in 3D with rotation possible. Dynamic HTML is enough. It's probably more compatible. A text below: "Rotate the view until some letters appear and copy them in the text-box below.".

My first idea of using 3D was more to generate a 2D image server-side that represents a 3D scene, in order to make transformations that humans (only) can find easily. Understanding a 3D scene is *beep* hard for a computer.

[ElbertF]

How about fragmenting the letters a bit, like a puzzle? Giving the seperate parts a slightly different color might make it pretty hard for bots to read, though it's still pretty clear for the user..?

Maybe the future will bring us some form of audial confirmation, a kind of morse code with short and long tones (the user could type it like this: "--.-" (long, long, short, long)). Offcourse you'd loose some potential users.. Something similar could be done with animation (like a movie with Flash, maybe even in 3D).

Just brainstorming here