oliveridesign.com
Web – Print – Multimedia
Destroy Contact Form Spam – Digitize Books
Over the years many people I know (including myself) have had serious issues with contact form spam. The solution that I have been using for quite a while now is called ReCaptcha, which is a free tool that can be found at http://recaptcha.net. I now use ReCaptcha on every website I build unless a client has a different solution they prefer. Ever since I started using ReCaptcha the amount of spam I get through my website is slim to none…more like none.
The great thing about using ReCaptcha is that not only are you putting powerful spam protection on your website but you are helping a good cause. ReCaptcha actually helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. The words from a ReCaptcha captcha (kind of a tongue twister) are actually from scanned books or newspapers. Another feature I really like is that ReCaptcha is accessible to blind users.
In conclusion, if you really need a high quality captcha, check out ReCaptcha asap. You can implement ReCaptcha on any website and you can find free ReCaptcha plug-ins for Word Press, Joomla, Drupal, and probably just about anything else.
To learn more about ReCaptcha visit http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html or just go to http://recaptcha.net!
December 22, 2009 - 12:57 pm
We’ve had a contact form on one of our clients sites that averages over 10,000 visits a month and gets zero spam messages using another technique other than ReCaptcha. Some people don’t like using a captcha, and some find they are too hard to read. A smartly configured php file(eliminating one time zone that bots use and no humans inhabit, google it) works just as well, it sends them to a “dead” page or one telling the user they need to change there zone because no one lives in that time zone, unless its done manually (which would defeat the purpose of a captcha in the first place) Forums for example are prone to spam, and by eliminating that zone it virtually stops all spam. If your afraid a user might have his/her computer set to that zone, a simple drop-down menu asking them if they are human with the default set to “no” works just as well instead of sending them to a dead page or eliminating the time zone. By keeping the default set to “no” bots automatically leave it the way it is because they don’t know how to handle it. We had a serious spam problem in one of our forums and we went against a captcha and went with this and it stopped the spam cold, with none to this day(3 years later). This also works for contact forms. For a quick easy fix ReCaptcha is the way to go. Nice review by the way. We have used ReCaptcha before and it works great.
December 22, 2009 - 11:44 pm
Thank you so much for the comment Jason! I like your approach and I will try this soon for a couple different reasons. One of the main reasons, like you said, is from time to time people have a hard time reading captchas. Another reason would be that one less field for someone to fill out the better. Lets face it, as marketers (usually just one of most site owner’s hats) we really want it to be nice and easy for a user to fill out a contact form, opt in form, or any other form of interaction through our website. The worst thing that could possibly happen in a situation like this is a web user finding it difficult to read the captcha and getting discouraged to the point that they leave your web site without completing your form. To me it would make more sense to just get rid of the captcha and the spam. Again, thank you for the comment and idea Jason. I am glad you liked my review and I agree with you…if you need a quick and easy spam fix ReCaptcha is the way to go. Talk to you later!