Password Protection

Really Weird Person · June 03, 2007, 03:57:05

Good job on the password protection system. :lol: It surprised me!

Asharin · June 03, 2007, 05:13:06

Personally it irritated the hell out of me, but eh, I guess it's needed.

LPChip · June 03, 2007, 09:35:20

It worked on another site, and I need to see if it works here. If it doesn't work that good, its going to be removd again, but if it seems to stop all spam, then I have to consider keeping it.

Saga Musix · June 03, 2007, 13:00:15

virtually every spam protection that is not a kind of standard works - so it would maybe even work if you exchange the field names on the register page. the spam bots would get confused and wouldn't be able to register anymore. if i were you, i'd try it

edit: if you enter the forum from the MPC front page, you get 2 prompts - one for lpchip.nl and one for lpchip.com

LPChip · June 03, 2007, 13:34:04

Quote from: "Jojo"
edit: if you enter the forum from the MPC front page, you get 2 prompts - one for lpchip.nl and one for lpchip.com

Haha, well, I can't really change that. I'll ask MisterX if he can change the link.

rewbs · June 04, 2007, 10:38:52

Jeff Atwood just posted a blog entry about the problems of the "login barrier": http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000881.html

QuoteWhen presented with the login barrier, I did what 99% of all the people who encounter a login barrier do: I turned back.

If you are interested in software development in any way, I definitely recommend the rest of his blog too.

LPChip · June 04, 2007, 11:15:29

I agree with the blog, except for the fact that the barrier doesn't exist in just being required to log in. I think the barrier itself is much bigger since you must register.

The login barrier on MPC as its now, requires you to enter a username and password given on the login dialogue itself, which doesn't make it a login barrier, but more somekind of visual confirmation barrier.

But I might be able to change it, so registration requires you to get through this barrier, and not just opening the forums.

I'll have to see if thats possible.

Asharin · June 04, 2007, 14:42:36

QuoteWhen presented with the login barrier, I did what 99% of all the people who encounter a login barrier do: I turned back.

Yeah, very tempting.

LPChip · June 04, 2007, 17:30:57

I have now moved the password protection from the index to a stage between registring.

It simply means, in order to do a register, you'll need to enter the login details.

I do fear that the spambots will be able to get past though.

If the spambots seem to be able to cope with this, then the initial password to access forum will be setup again.

The only reason why they would now be able to get in again, is that one of the disadventages of having such lock is turning in our favor.

It would prevent search engines from finding this forum, which would mean that it would also prevent spambots from finding this forum too. But we'll find out quickly enough. If they can break through this defense, the password will be moved back to the index. If not, then its the best solution I guess.

Asharin · June 05, 2007, 06:05:36

I am sooo glad you changed it. The login thing was VERY annoying.
You can go over the top with spam prevention, and I think that was just going over the line. I can see the point to it, spam IS annoying, but another method is assigning more moderators to help clean up any mess.
The only problem with that is, finding people you know won't delete random posts or whatever just because they disagree with it. You won't believe the problems we had with errant moderators at a gaming community I help run Luckily in the end the owner dropped a load of the bad mods, so all was good again

LPChip · June 05, 2007, 07:35:58

Quote from: "Asharin"I am sooo glad you changed it. The login thing was VERY annoying.
You can go over the top with spam prevention, and I think that was just going over the line. I can see the point to it, spam IS annoying, but another method is assigning more moderators to help clean up any mess.
The only problem with that is, finding people you know won't delete random posts or whatever just because they disagree with it. You won't believe the problems we had with errant moderators at a gaming community I help run Luckily in the end the owner dropped a load of the bad mods, so all was good again

Assigning yet another moderator won't do much good, I'm affraid.

Not that they can't clean the bad posts, cus they obviously can, but its not just deleting posts... Its the fact that the users must be administrated and banned that is an admin job.

Yes, we have like 3 or 4 admins here, but I'm the only one that is here frequently enough to deal with the mess.

But its the best way if I can prevent them from registering, and the password forum thingy was the best way I could find that actually prevents them from registering. We'll have to see if this method works as good, but if it doesn't, then I'm going to move it back, how annoying it may seem.

But if you just check: remember, you'll only have to press enter or click OK upon each visit.

kit beats · June 05, 2007, 12:47:21

i tought there was something wrong, i tryed to log in but i never came in...

LPChip · June 05, 2007, 12:58:08

Quote from: "Samplekit"i tought there was something wrong, i tryed to log in but i never came in...

I heard this alot actually...

Its quite funny how people do not read the screen. They read: MODPLug SPAM, and stop reading, then they see a login box, and assume that they must enter their username and password. But strangelly when it doesn't work, they just think it is maulfunctioning, instead of reading that it says: username = xxx password = xxx...

SoundCrafter · June 05, 2007, 16:22:50

Lol, samplekit, I did the same thing, don't worry.

I'm glad you moved it. However, (as a general rule) password protecting a page doesn't make it invisible, I'm afraid. I've seen more than a few links on google that, upon being clicked, show a prompt.

Um, maybe the message (with the login data) in all caps would work? and lots of exclamation points.

And if this does end up working out I must say it's quite innovative. Nice call.

kit beats · June 05, 2007, 19:05:04

:lol: i always go to modplug.com & then forum..

Thank god it works perfectly :twisted: