On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, Bob Jamison wrote:
Maybe instead of text, do what some e-shopping sites do. Have a pass phrase displayed on an image, and let the person type that in. Then the pass cannot be harvested.
I think the text-based verifier should be sufficient: the important thing is that it should no longer be possible to spam our wiki using *off-the-shelf* automated tools.
I realize that tools can be customized, but we can always change the form of the verifier again if countermeasures to it becomes widespread, and I think most spammers wouldn't see it as worth the effort initially, just for one wiki.
Additionally, to be effective, an image-based CAPTCHA would need to be heavily distorted (many spamming tools have OCR), which is really cruel to folks with less-than-perfect eyesight, or those who are not using graphical browsers for whatever reason.
I probably fall into both categories somewhat; I wear glasses and have problems with eyestrain, and it's also not unusual for me to do quick wiki bits from lynx or w3m rather than hauling out Mozilla. If we adopted an image-based CAPTCHA I would probably stop posting.
-mental