reCAPTCHA ... a worthy cause?

I saw the FAQ + API pages there, but I guess that only refers to the interface language, not the actual "pool" of captcha-strings.

Quote from: ganeshXL at Nov 04, 2008, 12:01 AM

I saw the FAQ + API pages there, but I guess that only refers to the interface language, not the actual "pool" of captcha-strings.

I think you’re probably right. I couldn’t figure out how you could create a custom theme since you’re getting the captcha-string from their site.

Quote from: BobRay at Nov 03, 2008, 11:52 PM

When you say users, I don’t know if you mean MODx site developers or the actual visitors to your pages. If it’s the latter, I’m not sure how happy they’ll be about having yet another step before submitting a form.

Both.
Visitors, because - once they’we registered - they can do what they’re allowed to do, without being buried in spam.
Developers, because we are given a choice: Captcha or reCaptcha.

Quote from: BobRay at Nov 03, 2008, 11:52 PM

I’m always annoyed by any form of Captcha when I fill out a form and reCaptcha often makes me annoyed enough to skip sending the message. Since there are now easy ways to avoid spam without Captcha, I don’t really see the need. I have sites with Captcha-less forms that have received zero spam in the past year (see the site in my sig for an example).

That’s great.
The right tool for the right job.
It is indeed possible to overuse it.
Text based captchas takes some effort to solve, but not as much as image based captchas. Which - IMO - should be made forbidden. >:(

If the people visiting my site can’t be bothered solving a relatively simple captcha when signing up, I really couldn’t care less about loosing them.

Your sites requirements are probably different than mine. And that’s fine.

I am raising my opinion about this, not because I’ll plaster my site with reCaptchas, but because I feel that the choice between the two captcha versions is best left to the end users, the site developers in this case.
IMHO. ’nuff said.

reCAPTCHA for SMF is the third most popular SMF modification, so it really can’t be that bad.

did you ever get around to coding it int something usable with modx, or how to integrate to Jot and eForm? As annoying as I think they are I have a client who might be interested.

I didn’t. (If you meant me, that is)
I really don’t have minutes left until after Christmas.

I don’t suppose that someone has had a chance to look any further into coding up reCAPTCHA for MODx?

I’d be greatly appreciative if someone would as I think reCAPTCHA is an excellent resource

I have a snippet and chunk for recaptcha that I’m using in a site I’m currently developing. They are just MODx ’ports’ of pure PHP/HTML code I have used succesfully before.

With a modicum of PHP knowledge you should be able to customise them for your own requirements. As far as I know the snippet works, but I haven’t used it on a live site, so the usual disclaimers apply even more!

To add or delete a form field you need to:

1. alter the chunk - the format used is (I am hoping) clear by looking at the chunk I am using. Note that the [+post...] placeholders ensure that any inputed data persists if there are validation errors and the [+errmsg...] placeholders are for the error messages as generated by the snippet.

2. Alter the validation logic if you need to validate this field - search the snippet for the /* Validation */ comment.

The snippet needs inputs for the keys (see recaptcha website), the URL of the directory with the images used for the buttons, and the path name (not URL!) of the recaptcha PHP library. You will need to download this, not link directly, as I prefer to not have to rely on external websites.

You also need to tell the snippet an email address (this is advertised as an alternative and in case of mail() failiure) and it also needs to know the name of the chunk.

It sends a HTML email, but if this is a problem (unlikely you would hope in 2009) just edit the mail() call in the snippet.

Enjoy!

-- Tim.

On the subject of useability of reCapthca, if you only get one word of the two correct then it appears to remember this and only expects one correct word the second time round.

-- Tim.

Tim, thanks for this, I will give it a try soon.