My proposed solution to the CAPTCHA problem

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Instead of relying on Cloudflare's system of algorithmically handing out CAPTCHAs when it detects suspicous post activity, why don't we just put a short, simple, text-based CAPTCHA right next to the submit button, that you fill out each time you post?

The algorithm Cloudflare uses is obviously flawed, as it flags legitimate posters while letting spam bots right through. While the solution I've proposed doesn't solve the whole problem of having to fill out CAPTCHAs (which is something common on many large forums), it would prevent people's posts from disappearing and getting refused because some dumb algorithm doesn't like them. It would also be somewhat tougher on spam bots in a way, since they wouldn't be able to use clever tricks to evade the heuristics and therefore the CAPTCHAs.

Literally all you'd have to do when you write a post is write things out, enter in the text in the captcha field, click "submit", and boom, done. No page refreshing or lost text or anything.

Is this method perfect? No. I have seen spam on 4chan and Slashdot, two sites that use this method, but the spam I see on these sites is more along the lines of trolling and copypasta than outright advertising. But, since there would be a CAPTCHA 100% of the time, it would likely have a greater chance of weeding out potential spammers, and since it would be built right into the page next to the submit button instead of randomly popping up and bringing the user to an external page that would eat or otherwise refuse their post, it would be much more tolerable.

I don't like filling out CAPTCHAs, but unfortunately they tend to be a necessary evil on large discussion forums. What I'm proposing is that we get rid of the glitchy algorithms and page reloading that cause people's posts to disappear right in front of them. My proposed method would be more efficient, and most likely more reliable as well.

Thoughts?

I could live with that. But who's going to implement it? It's not like any of our questions/suggestions/complaints are read by anyone who's in a position to make these changes. It took months before the problems on the old WP got so severe that we finally got moved (but not before losing Cornflake and Tallyman in the frustrating process); the Cloudflare issue on the current, "new" WP has been persisting for nearly half a year without much of a sign that anything is being done about it.

SOMETHING needs to be done, really, at the very least.

It wouldnt be AS bad if it wasnt for the fact that Cloudflare is COMPLETELY FREAKING BROKEN. It... doesnt... WORK. All those bots that get in and drown the forums in gibberish on a regular basis? It's supposed to be preventing that. All those site crashes and such? It's supposed to make those unlikely.

And those captchas? What a joke! Just today, I've had some of those stupid picture ones come through, right? Just to see what happens, instead of clicking on what it told me to... I just started rapid-fire clicking on whatever and mashing the button to go on. Or sometimes I'd just click exactly one.

....let me through anyway. This "security" service is so fantastically stupid that it's core freaking function literally doesnt work.

It *needs* to be replaced.

I now consider this site a genuine security risk, honestly. If there's anywhere I'm likely to get viruses from, well... THIS is the site that's making me paranoid, since I've never seen "security" measures go so berserk. I dont even care if it's logical to be worried about it, it's the impression it gives me.

So yeah. DUMP the stupid DerpFlare, and replace it with... with... I dunno, a drunken monkey with a hammer. The site would be like, 70000000000000% more secure that way.

Now to do some copy-pasta as I know *exactly* what Cloudflare is about to do.

One should ask the spambots for a solution as apparently they have no CAPTCHA problem looking at the flood of spam in GAD right know.

Captchas are a bad solution for a site where you have to log in to post. It may help with the likes of 4chan, but this isn't 4chan.

if you want to reduce the impact of spammers, place limits on new users. Put a limit on starting new threads at 2 per day and posts to existing threads at 5 per day. Or maybe prohibit all new threads except for one introducing themselves and then limit to 2 per day for the first month.

Also limit the number of new users from the same IP address.

If they are a spammer, then it wouldn't be so damned hard to eradicate them from the site.

Another thing that might help would be to suspend posts by a user if three or more members with more than some minimal number of posts flag a post by that user as being spam. Then the moderators could check and if they agree it is spam, they can remove the user. If not spam, then reinstate posting privileges.