[Suggestion] Bot prevention

I see quite a few bots around here. I'm just wondering, do you think the registration process should be changed a little bit, to stop spambots from being able to register?

For example, I've seen systems where a user, upon attempting to register, is presented with a string of letters and numbers, ie.

a898Zdfadf20adflo833444

They're then asked to type in something like the 8th, 9th, 16th and 18th characters in the string: adl8

Of course, nothing's foolproof, but I just thought I'd make the suggestion...it might save moderators some work. What do you think of this idea?

I think we even used to have one of those things which is basically a picture with distorted or obscured letters in it, but I'm not sure what happened to it. (I know it's got a name, but I forget what that is. >_>)

Captcha's still there, as far as I know.

I don't remember seeing it last time I looked, which was earlier this year. How do bots get past those, anyway?

The wiki requires you to do a math problem when adding a delete template. ...Perhaps that could be added?

So the wiki has more security then the forum? lols.

Totally relevant to the topic.

Originally Posted by Deckard

So the wiki has more security then the forum? lols.

It depends, because it is a wiki, a lot of different pages and templates can be edited as long as you have registered. With a forum, the most you can do without mod powers is make a lot of threads and posts.

Originally Posted by SacredSturgeon

[IMG]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/a_new_captcha_approach.png[IMG]

Totally relevant to the topic.

I laughed at that. Not at the image, at Littlefoot's mom dying.

Anyway I guess we could beef up security in this area, but it seems like that would be a war we could never win. Bots will keep getting smarter and eventually one will be created that knows how to get through the anti-bot security, so a more advanced security system would have to be put in place and the whole thing would just repeat itself. I say that the users should be given some sort of "block" option for threads if they've been made by adbots. Kind of like the ignore option.