Admin: Anti-Spam Images for Leaving Comments

Written by Nickel - 14 Comments

Are you having trouble leaving comments? If so, please let me know.

I recently had to implement a simple little challenge-response test for leaving comments due to a recent deluge of spam comments. When trying to leave comment, you should see a “captcha” image containing a financial word. Simply type the word into the required field and you should be good to go. I apologize for any inconvenience, but my spam filters were getting overwhelmed, so I had to act.

With that said, I’d appreciate some feedback as to whether or not it’s working properly. Comments are down overall since I made the change, which could either be natural variation, or it could signal difficulty leaving comments. If it works, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. If you’re having trouble, please contact me directly with details.

Update: I’ve implemented a new strategy that seems to: (1) allow legit comments through, and (2) do a reasonable job of blocking spam outright, before it even hits the filters.

Published on October 1st, 2008 - 14 Comments
Filed under: About/Admin
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

Hi Mr. Nickel - Just wanted to say that it seems to work (well, if you get this comment then it does). I’ve been thinking of installing something similar or perhaps coding something like it - can I ask, what plugin is it (if wordpress)? thanks…
Comment by Living Within Your Means — Oct 1st 2008 @ 5:35 pm
Good question… I’m using Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam (link).

Comment by nickel — Oct 1st 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Some times when I enter the word correctly it asks me to enter it again. Might be just a glitch on my side though.
Comment by EN — Oct 1st 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Testing…testing 1, 2, 3. Yep, looks okay to me.
Comment by Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Oct 1st 2008 @ 10:47 pm
There’s another way you can do this. Include a honeypot form element which does not get displayed (hidden via CSS) on a browser. If your comment submission script detects data in the honeypot field, it knows it is from a spambot and it is simply discarded.
Comment by Nehal — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 1:46 am
I tried a similar thing on my blog a while back and got feedback that it confused some people. Not saying that will happen to you, but it did happen to some of my readers. Figured I would let it go and let Askimet do its job. So far, I haven’t had too much to deal with.
Comment by Double Journey — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 1:56 am
Testing new anti-spam measure.

Edit: Okay, captcha is gone for now, and real comments seem to be getting through. Still not sure how effective this is at stopping spam.

Comment by nickel — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 10:27 am
Looks good (maybe)
Comment by jim — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 10:28 am
Captcha’s are great in theory, but I’ve found that most people over 40 have a very difficult time reading them and have an even worse time figuring out what they are for
Comment by LiveWellSimply — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 11:42 am
Testing - yes, working - by the way, love your blog. I read it everyday. :o)
Comment by Donna — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Nickel, you may be using this already, but I found YAWASP to work very well against comment spam and without CAPTCHA.
Comment by Pinyo — Oct 2nd 2008 @ 2:52 pm
I just placed a comment and I was not asked to do any captcha. I don’t know if you implemented yet.
Comment by Christopher Holdheide — Oct 7th 2008 @ 12:34 pm
Christopher: I’ve actually come up with a better solution, so there’s no need for the captcha anymore.

Comment by nickel — Oct 7th 2008 @ 4:51 pm
Nickel
Great!
Captcha seems to be a hassle but I can understand with all the spammer out there.
Thanks for letting me know.
Comment by Chris Holdheide — Oct 7th 2008 @ 6:21 pm