I've just completed a small change to the blog script: i've retooled the CAPTCHA image for the comments form to make it a bit more robust.
I've done this change mainly because there have been a fair few spam comments in the past few weeks that have made it past the previous one. Strangely enough, it's been over two months now since there has been an actual legitimate comment on this blog, which has to be some kind of record since i started blogging. Have i become less provocative, or is the one person that actually commented regularly now too busy to? (you know who you are ;))
Anywho, the new CAPTCHA is now much more accessible too: it has a refresh/regenerate button to get a new image if you can't read the one displayed (so you don't have to refresh the entire page), as well as an audible playback option which will generate a sound file 'saying' the displayed code.
Overall it's a great improvement, but more importantly I hope it'll keep the friggin spam off the comments.
Give it a go and let me know what you think, and please definitely let me know if there are any bugs.
*makes an incisive comment*
*makes a humorous reply*
But 'yay!', a real comment!
What is that?...is that a bug?
ew, bugs...
bugs are annoying, but they are satisfying to squash!
eww, squashed bug guts...
(many IT bugs were harmed in the making of this CAPTCHA. To the authors knowledge no real bugs were harmed... except for a single mosquito :))
Well it looks like my host's latest server update has broken the image generation...
While they get it fixed, you can still enter in the captcha code by listening to it...
I told you there were bugs, i said it first, but you didn't believe me.
You pointed at me and called me a heathen. Well maybe not that...
Okay my host has finally fixed the required module; all bugs exterminated!
Basic, but effective.
You really aren't using SecurImage to it's full potential.
Thanks for visiting.
Yeah I know that the script can do a whole lot more, but i think the basic use of it is effective enough to stop the spam (haven't had a single one since implementing it), without being overbearing for people not familiar with it.
I had a lot of problems with porn spam, so I decided to make mine as impossible to crack and still be easy to read as possible, i came up with a random background selection with as much breakup in it as possible, and a few primary colors with my font. I like the way it turned out. Very stylized yet highly effective.