Question
What's the best way to keep bots out?
CAPTCHAs are annoying; spam comments, even more.
Are there any great bot-screening tools you've used to keep automated signups out while not making onboarding annoying?
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I just started receiving bot signups last week – I noticed because I started receiving spam complaints on the verification emails.
Added a honeypot, which worked in keeping them out.
I wonder what these bots accomplish, though.
Yes, a first_name field with width/height 0 and overflow-hidden on the parent. If filled in, the signup is discarded but shows a success page.
Gottcha, makes sense.
Generally bot signups still strike me as odd—bots trying to comment and leave spam links is one thing, but trying to make app accounts doesn't seem to have any benefit to them. Weird thing to have to fight yet if you don't, your signup numbers are all off.
@michihuber this is a great idea! We get a handful of bot signups every week. I have no idea what the objective is for the people who are writing these bots, and it's mild enough that it doesn't seem worth making ALL of our users do a captcha. This seems like a great solution!
I should clarify, I do confirm email addresses and the recipients are real, so I really don't know what these accomplish. I read somewhere that the recipients get spammed so that actually relevant warnings of illicit logins get drowned out (but random signups would appear just as suspicious to me, so seems like a weak theory).
When I design a Sign-Up / Get Started, I first collect Email ID or Mobile, sometimes other data too. But will only give access to the platform only after the verification. Or any bot reached that level?
Yup verification should catch most if not all bots—though you end up still having to send verification codes to every bot signup. Tiny extra cost/overhead, but not that bad.
I think it can be bad as the recipients of the bot signup start flagging your email as spam, which may hurt your deliverability over time.
https://www.geetest.com/en
This tool is using in some crypto trading platforms. And I think this is really not annoying. Check it out
I’ve seen the puzzle piece slider (presumably from Geektesters) on an increasing number of sites, presumably from Geetest. Their CAPTCHAs do seem easier to use than the average, so that’s a win at least!
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Interesting. Are you doing that with a decoy/hidden field in your signups?