United3dArtists Archive

mm natural cheese rocks; pasteurized process cheese pood sucks.

Some people are having no trouble with the anti-spam question while others are having much trouble. This makes it obvious that differences in user's experiences are on the user's side.

Barring malfunction, the spam system does exactly the same thing on the forum's side for each and every poster. The system is not a conscious being that dislikes some and likes others. Steinie nor Prodigy have set anything to make it easy for thier buddies and hard for others.

So, what could it do that is the same for all of us but produces different results? Well, it could check something on each user's system and then customize a user's experience based on the user's settings on his browser/computer. Settings that the user chose of his own free will. If my settings are just like yours then we will get the same results.

Perhaps there are problems with certain browsers or browser versions. (Not tested by me.) Perhaps it is malfunctioning. Before you claim that the system is malfunctioning test if your settings are incompatible with easy use of the anti-spam question.

I suspected that privacy/security settings, particularly cookies, are the culprit so I did the test below.

We all have our own needs and preferences regarding privacy and security on our computers. We must each take responsibility for our choices. High security settings can interfere with other things we would like to do or the ease of doing them. We all know what would happen if we were lax on security.

There may be other ways to protect the forum from spam that are more high-security-setting friendly but that is not the topic of this post.

You might think there wasn't a spam problem because you didn't see it. You didn't see it because Steinie and Prodigy spend a lot of time fighting it instead of producing awesome artwork. If they will do that for you then setting a specific exception in your security/privacy settings just for this site isn't too much to ask you to do for them.

- TEST OF COOKIES EFFECTS ON ANTI-SPAM QUESTION -

Browser: Firefox vs. 3.6.12

In each test I attempted log in, posting with text and images, and editing a post.

TEST 1:

Cookies Settings (my normal settings): Third party cookies forbidden. Other cookies allowed. All cookies cleared when browser closed.

Result: Anti-spam question required only for the initial log in and I don't have to answer it again unless cookies have been cleared. No trouble posting, editing, or attaching images.

TEST 2:

Cookies Settings: All cookies forbidden.

Result: Anti-spam question required at log in and at every attempt to post, edit, or attach an image. Further, images did not appear.

TEST 3:
Cookies Settings: Cookies allowed only for http://united3dartists.com" .

Result: Same as test 1.


(Design the ultimate security device to keep you safe. Made of metal so it is strong vs. threats, few moving parts so you don't get injured by it, padded on the inside to prevent injury, door locked so threats don't get in, placed underground to prevent crushing or rolling ... a coffin.)

Edit: changed "to" to "too".

This makes it obvious that differences in user's experiences are on the user's side.

This just makes it obvious that some users have trouble with it, while others have not. The problem is on the boards side, is a nag feature, and is called anti spambot question

I will definiteyl not change my settings to what the board hosters out there thinks i should have so that their boards works best. That`s a bad idea. I use more than one board.

I think i`ve told more than once now that the problem with the bots can easily be fixed with a usedefined profile field instead. Equal effective, and doesn`t nag the users anymore

Tiles wrote: I think i`ve told more than once now that the problem with the bots can easily be fixed with a usedefined profile field instead. Equal effective, and doesn`t nag the users anymore

I believe that Prodigy did try it your way once but somehow it didn't work correctly and he changed it back. Only he can give the real reason why it didn't work right.
It is pretty obvious from the various test done that this is cookie issue.
Tiles you might want to email Prodigy directly about your fix that would work here. I certainly don't want users here to suffer.

Nobody wants this. Damn bots.

Yes, i know too good that the PHPBB3 can be a pain, settingswise. Hm, i thougth my description was clear and easy enough to follow. I had described it here:

vi ... bb3#p15424"

Possible that i made a translation error. Prodigy, where did your attempt fail?