Email form - no captcha?

Great suggestion @webdeersign. But how do we incorporate this into a Blocs form? Can you direct me to any online instructions please?

I can’t direct you but this is exactly the type of functionality that can and will ideally be provided by a 3rd party add-on. On maybe Norm would add such a function.

2 Likes

I’m not a great lover of Captchas. They’re messy and inconvenient, particularly if you only need a sign-up form. Third party captchas, such as those provided by Google only really serve the interests of Google, Whilst third party form processors add a layer of uncertainty - if the third party service is off-line, then so is the form in your site. What needs to be incorporated into Blocs is the ability to add hidden fields and the option of submitting the form to a script on a server of the users choice. This would enable the use of more sophisticated third-party scripts with spam detection built in. I must admit, however, that I’ve never had spam problems with Blocs forms. Any spam that does come in is usually due to a manual form-filler sitting at a computer, rather than a spam bot and that only inconveniences me. The worst thing that can happen with spam email is if your script gets compromised and gets used as a spam gateway to other people. This can result in your server IP getting black-listed, or even a denial of service. Given that Blocs doesn’t display your email address in the HTML of the page, it’s quite difficult for spam bots to harvest the address.

One thing that could be done to minimise issues such as this, particularly if legislation demands that you display an email on your site, is to use alias email addresses on your site that redirects to your real email. If a large amount of spam starts arriving, you can change the alias on your website and create a new one. This goes some way to preventing the inconvenience of having to delete and change live email address that you may use for other purposes.

1 Like

I agree that dealing with spam is the responsibility of the website owner and shouldn’t inconvenience, or impact on, the web user experience. As a Business Catalyst user, I’ve been able to add a variety of security features to forms - both visible and hidden - with a few clicks of the mouse. So as a Blocs newbie, I’m just trying to establish how things are done. Nothing more, nothing less. But thanks for sharing your thoughts.

You beat me to it…well said. It’s a balance between getting contacts and creating an inconvenience for potential customers…not to mention functionality that relies on third parties being up and running. Those who have used various 3rd party font sources know all to well that all hell breaks loose when the client calls saying their website looks awful…the fonts changed or worse no fall backs.
Being involved in UI/UX and SEO for the last 20 years you learn …sometimes the hard way. :wink:
An option would be nice…at least you can tell the client you have it and weigh out the pros and cons with them.

+1 from me

that is needed, pls.

Yup, that’s coming out very soon :slight_smile:

Bill
BricsDesign

3 Likes

I’m guessing it’s not out yet?

Here the post with the reCAPTCHA Bric from @Bill

2 Likes

@Flashman, I’ve not heard of those. Can you provide links to an example or two? thanks!

@webdeersign, would you mind sharing the code solution for that? thanks!

I’ve used the honey pot trap as part of certain contact stacks in Rapidweaver on sites where I have never received a single spam message in three years. There is an explanation here of how it works https://jennamolby.com/how-to-prevent-form-spam-by-using-the-honeypot-technique/

In theory we could do this in Blocs and I’d like to see a way of implementing this easily, even if it was just a “honey pot bric” option to include alongside other form brics.

Here is another link with information https://solutionfactor.net/blog/2014/02/01/honeypot-technique-fast-easy-spam-prevention/

1 Like

I don’t have a code solution but it is a technique I have used in other systems.

Bootstrap has really good form components which provide all of the building block. What’s needed is a required number field that must validate to be equal to a number. E.g. the number could be 5 and the text for the field would be something like “Add two & three together”, so the form does not get sent until the user enters 5 in the box.

@webdeersign, OK cool… I get it. Not sure how to write the validation code though?

How do you write this into the form?

Has anyone found a solution for the honeypot technique?
(Why is this not part of the Blocs core application?)

1 Like

@Visionquest I agree - @Norm possibly another thing for Blocs 4 !!! be good to have this built in the form bric as standard. as said above - the ones ive used in the past do a simple: 3+3 = or 2+3= etc

cheers!

What exactly did you use before, where to get and how to use? I’d be grateful for some help on that.

Hi ya - sorry - was not with Blocs, was with Rapidweaver / Foundation and many times on Wordpress.

I would love this to be in Blocs.