Petition to ban captchas:

submitted by 211 from (self.SaidIt)

comment if you want capchas gone

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[–]Req 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (16 children)

nah, we have enough bots already. Lets not make it any easier for more. already 50% of internet traffic is bots: https://techreport.com/statistics/internet-traffic-of-bots/

I understand your frustration however, I would argue for better captcha's instead.

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

This does nothing to stop bots

It's for some thing else.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (12 children)

Oh it definitely stops bots. We turned it off a few months ago and the site was immediately filled with an insane amount of spam

[–]EddieC 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Here's a proposal that would effectively quarantine and harness bot traffic for the benefit of the site. A win-win solution for all.
 

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

Clearly doesn't

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

You think it's bad now, it's 10x worse with it off

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Let's test that theory.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

We did, 3 months ago, and it went terribly and made it clear to everyone why we need it.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Doubt that, I suspect you can't if you wanted to.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

It's a fact, thankfully facts don't care about your doubt.

[–]Jiminy 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Like I said let's test that theory, that's how you prove facts. Obviously it's not stopping bots and it's absurd to have this any website.

[–]Req 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

elaborate please. now im curious :)

[–]EddieC 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Here's a proposal for a trial to address the issue and minimize user frustration.
Feel free to make constructive suggestions to address the problem.
 

[–]IkeConn 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Captchas are a pain in the ass but I haven't had to block 20 fresh bots every morning any more.

[–]dissidentrhetoric 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

They need to put said it behind pfsense and then use pfblocker to block entire countries.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

they use VPNs to spoof any country so that doesn't help

[–]dissidentrhetoric 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

You can try block some of the known lists which are maintained. That can help + the country blocks. Also if you have pfsense and anti-ddos protection it can help against ddos if you have enough bandwidth like at ovh for example.

https://www.iblocklist.com/lists

https://www.comparitech.com/data-privacy-management/block-ads-malware-pfsense-pfblocker/

https://cdn.comparitech.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/FeedsTab_NEW.jpg.webp

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

They just keep taking on different IP addresses until they find one that works. I actually built a system that auto-detects spam accounts and blocks their IP, but they change IP literally every single request, to a completely different IP in a different country. It's indistinguishable from regular traffic, especially since so many saidit users use vpns. It's a good idea, but at best it would only reduce the spam by half at most, and probably only for a few months until they find IPs that work and then it'll be back to normal. I used to block huge IP ranges and whole countries back 4 years ago or so, but it literally did nothing after a few days. The person or group generating most of the spam can mimic any IP address, they're not just using VPNs. Literally the only solution seems to be to look at what they post and ban them for that, but that's exactly the game of whack-a-mole we've been doing for months.

Most forums get around this by having paid staff that reviews all new things posted and they hand out user bans constantly. We have volunteers working at their leisure... which means we will never be able to control the spam unfortunately. It is what it is.

[–]dissidentrhetoric 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That is the benefit to using these actively maintained lists is that some other bot or person is updating the lists but yea it is never going to be perfect. Especially if it is a manual spammer. Should help against big bot spam scripts though.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes and it seems to be a manual spammer that occasionally uses the scripts. I am almost certain he would be 1 step ahead of these lists, because the lists form in reaction to the activity which is always first, and his IPs are not limited to any range and change with each request. It's whack-a-mole