[Web4lib] web forms

[Jonathan Bloy]

As a user, I find many of the captchas to be a very annoying.

Last year, one of my library's email forms was getting hit with a lot of spam.  I ended up using this technique:
http://www.modernblue.com/web-design-blog/fighting-spam-with-css/

Basically you add an extra form field which you hide with CSS.  Since the spambots don't read the CSS they fill in this extra field (especially if you label it something tasty to them like "email").  Then you have your form processing script check to see if that field is blank.  If it is, continue to process the form, if the field isn't blank don't process it, or send the bot somewhere else.  My script sends the spambots to a non-existent page, which makes it appear there is an error in the script.

I also add an extra description for humans, something like "Spam check, leave this blank" who might be using a screen reader or another device that doesn't apply the CSS.

Since I made the change (about a year ago) we've only got a couple of spams on that form, which I believe were submitted by an actual human.

 - Jonathan


--
Jonathan Bloy
Web Services Librarian
Edgewood College
Madison, Wisconsin
http://library.edgewood.edu/