L.Adlon Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 (edited) ...preferably something that doesn't need a membership, excessive coding, etc. Just a simple, compatible contact form with Captcha, or some other anti-spam measure, for a regular HTML website (not a WordPress one). Edited May 28, 2014 by L.Adlon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingolme Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Contact forms require a server-side language like PHP in order to automatically send an e-mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 Yep. I set one up before (premade scripts/files). My web host supports that sort of thing. Just wondering what's latest and greatest (...well, simple and compatible, actually!) these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davej Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I hate Captcha. The images are often too difficult for a human to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don E Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 My personal favorite is google's recaptcha: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html (maybe not what you're looking for since you need a google account, but if you already have one, you can use that account for everything related to google) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 @davej: I hear ya! Ironically, the captcha I had to endure to register for this forum was unbelievablly hard to read... Then, I tried doing the audio version, and that was a total joke. I don't think any human can understand what is being said by the audio version. Took me a few tries just to get the visual one right, finally. I'm glad I don't have to keep doing that. @Don E: Damn, too bad you need a Google account. I agree, having to do Captcha sucks, overall... I'm open to any other method. I just want something in place on my contact form so that I don't get bombarded with spam. I'd simply just put my contact email address on the site, but that gets easily read by bots, and I get spammed. So, I use a contact form, but that gets spammed too, if there's nothing in place to at least slow down the process. The internet is fun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davej Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 I think you could have fun with creating a Captcha replacement. Some sites just ask an obvious question or have a little math puzzle or use anything a bot would trip over. When I was playing with Drupal there was a module I installed that looked up every potential user e-mail to see if they were a known spammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 I'll look into that, but it's probably beyond my abilities at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsonesuk Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Hidden text input positioned out of view, if its filled in or not the default value then its spam is another popular option, but you have to validate with server-side coding you can't rely on JavaScript cause in most case it will just bypass it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovewebdesign Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I hate Captcha. The images are often too difficult for a human to read. Many Captcha has voice prompt, so if we cannot read it, we can hear it, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingolme Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I've tried sound CAPTCHAs. Often I can't understand what they're saying because the voice is covered by a lot of noise. The W3C has an article about CAPTCHAs and the problems with them: http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/ Their excerpt on sound CAPTCHAs http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/#sound To reframe the problem, text is easy to manipulate, which is good for assistive technologies, but just as good for robots. So, a logical means of trying to solve this problem is to offer another non-textual method of using the same content. Hotmail serves a sound file that can be listened to if the visual verification is not suitable for the user. However, according to a CNet article [NEWSCOM], Hotmail's sound output, which is itself distorted to avoid the same programmatic abuse, was unintelligible to all four test subjects, all of whom had "good hearing". Users who are deaf-blind, don't have or use a sound card, work in noisy environments, or don't have required sound plugins are likewise left in the lurch. Since this content is auditory in nature, users often have to write down the code before entering it, which is very inconvenient. Worst of all, some implementations of this technique are JavaScript-based, or designed in such a way that some blind users may not be able to access them. Machines, on the other hand, may even have greater success with voice recognition software than they do with OCR on visual CAPTCHAs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davej Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Yeah, making something that supports visually impaired users or non-English speakers would be tricky. Maybe you could simply measure the speed in which the form is filled out, and if it is too fast then it must be a robot -- or if they answer the math or spelling problem correctly then it must be a robot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 @Ingolme: Ya, like I mentioned, the audio version of the Captcha on this very forum was actually brutal. I don't think I would have been able to even guess what was being said, even after listening to the same clip for a week! I went to the audio one because the visual one was brutal as well. I totally understand that they have to be quite distorted, since the bots are getting really good, but it was now to the point where I personally could barely read it (and totally couldn't hear it). @davej: I've seen a math thing on a few sites, and that seems like a good solution (...if I had the actual ability to code!). I'm surprised the bots are doing those. The math (I assume) would be easy, so I guess it's something with the reading of the equation and the filling in of the form. At worst, I could just forward the visitor to my personal blog, and have them use the WordPress contact form (with Captcha) there... I just didn't want to mix the personal and business site (...and I can't have more than one blog on my webspace). In the end, I'm probably just using an email address on the site, and just weed through the spam, I guess. I'll see how it goes. Ah, web and telephone scammers... Life would be so much easier without you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingolme Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Robots are very good at math, computers are math machines. And if the question is written in text it can even read the text and figure out what the question is. An example people often point out when showing how smart computers are is wolfram alpha. Go ahead and ask it anything, it reads English and gives answers. Answer 2 + 2 What is the third letter in "designated"? What color is the sky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davej Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I like a system where a new user's first few posts require human (moderator) approval. Robots can't get past that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 10, 2014 Author Share Posted June 10, 2014 Yep, that's how I had my comments section on my wordpress blog. But, this is a non-WordPress site I'm asking about now. If there was a simple contact form type thing (with some form of spam deterrant) that I could easily slam into my regular HTML site, that would be great... but coding anything myself is well beyond me, unfortunately. Meh, I'll just have the email up there, and pray for the best. I guess I'll create a disposable email specifically for the website visitor contact emails, and change it every time it gets flooded. I'm not exactly overwhelmed with traffic, so hopefully it's not too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkxPunk Posted June 10, 2014 Share Posted June 10, 2014 I use the following: http://www.fastsecurecontactform.com Has an admin backend thats easy to configure. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 (edited) Hi, DarkxPunk. Ya, that's the one I use on my blogs. Is that not exclusively for WordPress? I'm needing something I can just drop into my non-WP website. If it CAN, that would be perfect, as I like that one a lot. [Moments later]: Oh, neat! Looks like you CAN use it on a regular website... I think. It has a PHP version, which seems to be implying that I can just put it on a regular HTML page... I think. I'll read further on that and see. That would be awesome. Thanks for pointing that out to me. Even though I use it currently, I would not have realized there's a non-WP version unless you (re)pointed that out to me! Edited June 11, 2014 by L.Adlon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkxPunk Posted June 11, 2014 Share Posted June 11, 2014 Yeah he has a standalone on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 (edited) I'm trying it out now. If this works, that will help with a lot of stuff. Edited June 22, 2014 by L.Adlon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Argh... Okay, so apparently, you can't just put the code on a regular HTML page. The form doesn't show up. (This is apparently normal, if you know anything about PHP...which I don't). The page has to be .php rather than .html. So, I changed the extension, and it still doesn't show up. So, I found an article outlining how to make PHP work in an HTML page. Hopefully that works, but I'm into territory where I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I'm cool with modifying the .htaccess, as it says I need to do... but the workings and coding of PHP is not something I'm familiar with at all. Anyone have any words of wisdom, guidence and/or caution on how to proceed? The page would be a contact form page that I'd have brought up (from various parts of the site via a link/button) as a new browser window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.Adlon Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 (edited) Ah... Well, as is seemingly traditional with me, I figured it out only AFTER posting about it. Can't really say what the issue was before, but following the instructions again, it worked this time. Cheers! Edited June 22, 2014 by L.Adlon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now