Hi there. We set up Discourse to power community.intercoin.org but we get spambots from random IPs signing up and submitting messages “suspiciously fast”. While we could try to moderate those messages, I would like to add an additional custom hurdle to the signup process, could be as simple as “type the word intercoin” and then a correct answer or answers would allow login.
I am sure it is easy to add if you know Ruby but perhaps there is already a plugin I can install, which modifies the view and controller for registration to reject registrations that don’t have a correct answer?
Please link me to how to install this plugin. Are there several such plugins?
Since people could register with Google or Facebook, another option would be to keep showing people a question and not activate them as users unless they answer it. I would even recommend having a “Questions the admins want you to answer” feature as facebook has in their Groups.
Hello,
Maybe user fields can help you out where they could type the word. However, if they got it wrong it cannot make them re-try. Perhaps not the best solution but give it a shot?
You might have a look at Optional global invite code. You could, perhaps, add the invite code to your header so that a human could see it. Note, though, that lots of spam is created by humans these days, so that won’t help.
I’d like to bump this. I have a site that is particularly to linguists, and I’d like to add a very basic question that would help me to make sure they’re not spambots — “What’s your favorite language?” or something like that. If I could see the response before approving them, I feel that would increase the quality of my site.
Right now, suppose I get a user application with a gmail address and no name. I have no way to know whether they are really interested in the site at all.
UPDATE
Hmm, actually, there is an option to send the applicant a message, so I will try that as a filtering tool for now. I still think the question approach could expedite the process.
If you’re looking for a simple text box rather than an auto-validate check, I think you should be able to do that using the /admin/customize/user_fields:
