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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) New member registration (Read 45721 times)
Jesse Gersenson
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Re: New member registration
Reply #7 - 09/28/11 at 06:43:55
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It's not just bots which are being turned away at the door. It's bots and trolls.
  
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Gorath
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Re: New member registration
Reply #6 - 09/27/11 at 14:34:36
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Tony, a capture is a must nowadays. It's as simple as that. But unfortunately even simple captures are hardly able to keep bots away nowadays.

I hope you don't mind me mentioning this ... checking everybody is not something you (personally) should be spending your time on, IMHO. Either outsource this, via Elance for example, to some guy in India who will be happy to earn 10 bucks extra per week.
Or find somebody who is willing to do it for free in exchange for a ChessPub subscription. That's the only currency you can print in unlimited numbers. Wink


An idea:
Instead of asking for a reason, ask for something a bot cannot know:
Ask a long question and have the answer be a specific chess term, for example the German word "Zugzwang", or "Zeitnot" / "time trouble". That's impossible to guess for a bot without human help. Or ask "Who is the most famous American world champion?"
In any case the answer is short and easy to process.


Maybe a reversal of process would also be better. I'm a mod in another forum. We let everybody in who proves his intelligence by getting past the capture. The software generates a page with the latest registrations. Here everybody is assessed by hand. People with suspicuous usernames or obviously faked profiles are killed immediately, without warning or communication. The (custom coded) sub-page allows to instaban all marked accounts with one mouseclick.
  
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GMTonyKosten
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Re: New member registration
Reply #5 - 09/03/11 at 20:56:26
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TalJechin wrote on 09/03/11 at 11:27:46:
Why not use some form of "human verification"? For example: http://captcha2.com/

I have to use the tools that come with the Forum, it is just that there are so many bots trying to become members at the moment that going through all the requests (40+ today) is becoming time-consuming.
It is easy enough to see who is serious, and I've accepted people who have simply written 'Chess' so it is not too difficult for humans to get through my verification procedure! Huh

Zwischenzugzwang wrote on 09/03/11 at 13:24:42:
(i) Was my initial registration attempt already "enough", and there was just some delay caused by whatever reason

Yes, of course, I was away from home for a week and was just unable to get to an internet connection and so there was a slight build-up of requests. Roll Eyes
  
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Zwischenzugzwang
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Re: New member registration
Reply #4 - 09/03/11 at 13:24:42
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GMTonyKosten wrote on 04/14/11 at 18:57:38:
Please, anyone who wants to become a member of the Forum will have to give a decent reason why from now on, or risk instant rejection! Sorry about this but taking a few extra seconds to write something worthwhile shouldn't be too hard. Wink


Dear Tony,

when I tried to register about 3 months ago, I was feeling somehow uncomfortable with that task mentioned in the quote, because I didn't really know what was expected from me. So I wrote something short and more general about interest in chess openings, and was then waiting for a reply, which was announced for one or two days later. After I hadn't heared from CP for six days, I wrote a sort of "SOS"-e-mail, where I repeated an answer to that particular question, this time more elaborated. Immediately after that I got access.
So I'm still not sure: (i) Was my initial registration attempt already "enough", and there was just some delay caused by whatever reason, or (ii) was it in fact only my second attempt that succeeded?

If case (i) is true, then it would be helpful for the "candidate" to receive some message like "Due to technical problems, we are unable at the moment to answer your request, you will get notification in a few days ..." in case of a delay.

But if case (ii) is true, then CP should be a little bit more specific what sort of answer is expected and that it's not enough to write something like "I know how to play chess. Interest in openings. Tony is a great guy." ( Smiley)

Best regards,

Zwischenzugzwang
  

What do people mean when they say "Chess is the pawn of the soul"?
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TalJechin
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Re: New member registration
Reply #3 - 09/03/11 at 11:27:46
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Why not use some form of "human verification"? For example: http://captcha2.com/

It's free if presented less than 1000 times a month http://captcha2.com/terms.html
  
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GMTonyKosten
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Re: New member registration
Reply #2 - 09/03/11 at 10:29:49
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We're receiving an awful lot of requests from bots at the moment which means that it is also a good idea to provide a sensible username - as at the moment I'm having to reject random-looking usernames without even seeing the reason for registering! Roll Eyes
  
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GMTonyKosten
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Re: New member registration
Reply #1 - 06/01/11 at 20:49:23
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GMTonyKosten wrote on 04/14/11 at 18:57:38:
Please, anyone who wants to become a member of the Forum will have to give a decent reason why from now on, or risk instant rejection!

Mentioning Chess and/or Openings is also a good idea to avoid generic Spambots' standard reasons for joining Forums! Roll Eyes
  
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GMTonyKosten
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New member registration
04/14/11 at 18:57:38
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To avoid spamming, but also people who register just to annoy someone else, I have made it significantly harder to register. Cry
Please, anyone who wants to become a member of the Forum will have to give a decent reason why from now on, or risk instant rejection! Sorry about this but taking a few extra seconds to write something worthwhile shouldn't be too hard. Wink
  
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