As you can see the Spam CAPTCHA on the comments had to be turned back on.
We sincerly apologies to anyone who dislikes it, but we are at the point where we have so much spam it’s taking a considerable amount of time to get through, therefore your comments are having to wait longer to be approved. A whopping 48.70% of all our comments are spam.
To give you an example, we had 465 spam comments yesterday alone. We have to sift through all these to find genuine comments which often get caught there.
So we hope it’s not too much trouble with the CAPTCHA back on, and we look forward to all your comments as usual 
Nowt wrong with a bit of CAPTCHA to keep the spam out!
No problem at all!
No problem! At least you don’t have the ridiculously absurd one turned on that can only be read by a prophetic bald man walking backwards whilst carrying a barking frog.
I have no probs with the Spam Captcha being back on at all. You all do such a great job keeping this blog up & running that a few more characters for us to key just to make your job a little easier is no hardship at all.
Thankyou for all what you do with this blog, I do love it so…..
LC x
Understandable.
But if you\’re gonna have them, why not make them interesting?
I swear MySpace is on some kind of subliminal message mission. Back when I used the site I read some pretty strange phrases in their captchas :O
Maybe make everyone type the word \”arse\” a few times before they\’re allowed to post…
I think you should use reCAPTCHA instead, to help them digitize their books!
http://www.recaptcha.net
That’s fine but from now on I’m going to comment using encrypted text so that SPAMers cannot view my opinions publicly…
f9922a75257d131bc6240c098d69f412
a72b661e2b404f010ff79a457b44f471ea935403
Bothers me none folks!
I’d much rather you lovely people have more time to blog for us than pick through the spam!!
Surzy x
Suggestion, rather than use a captcha, why not just insert a tickbox on the page thats hidden from view (or the same colour as the background). All spambots would automatically tick it (cos theyre stupid), humans wouldnt (cos they couldn’t see it) therefore you could just setup a rule to delete all comments with a tick.
Just a suggestion. Oh and sorry for using the word “cos” instead of because. I know its bad grammar but I wanted to save on keypresses….
95wq8t5.
Cheers.
I see you’re running WordPress: have you given Akismet a try? In my experience it is absolutely excellent, but if a CAPTCHA is what you need, c’est la vie.
In which case, have you looked into reCAPTCHA? http://recaptcha.net/
Msg from Abeo: Yea Akismet is what we were using, but it was sending far too many actual comments into the spam filter so we had to end up reading them anyway!
I refuse to post anywhere that uses them.
Oh hang on… d’oh! Got me
I already wondered some time ago why it wasn\’t there anymore, but apparently reality has proven its usefullness.
I hope the letters are readable, a few here and there on the internet are really hard to read, even for a non bot.
F#ck .. I forgot to put in the sec. text .. oh my … (serious)
no worries mate if it keeps the spam to a minimum then i\’m all for it.
Derren, you have given me great examples to share with others on how to sift through perception and suggestion to find real truth. It went right along with articles I had found on other like subjects such as ideomotor hoaxing, water witching hoaxes, the incorrect thoughts of those who have received donated organs, etc.
I have used your examples over and over to actually teach others how to cast aside patterns of thinking to get to bonafide truth. I love truth. I am a leader in a national Christian counseling ministry.. THANKS for being such an exciting example of someone who understands the mind and how it can be fooled! Your work has improved my life and the lives of others! Good work!
You might find the ideomotor article interesting: (I don’t work for this site)
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/ideomotor.html
I take it now wouldn’t be a good time to offer you some viagra with a free breast enlargement thrown in?
Yeah, having played with serveral websites and forums over the years,
I know only too well how much spam comments come through on a daily basis.
I too think that recaptcha is a great idea and while I’m here…I would love some viagra and a breast enlargement
Bloody spam…..but No problem @ all if it helps
Is ‘I love truth’ Sally for real?
She teaches others to cast aside patterns of thinking to get to the truth then mentions she’s part of some Christian ministry.
Go on Sally, read Derren’s ‘Tricks of the mind’ book to see what Derren has to say about God and Christianity.
Hey you have to keep the house clean so no worries here.
Well the antispam thing is only a bit annoying and your brilliant blog is totally worth it. Wasn´t completely sure what you ment by spam (maybe I should ask granny, she know more about it than me). But I now realise it\’s like those cxxx enlargment ads some utterly brainless person keeps sending to my mail. I get your frustration.
Ah! Friggin anti-text! Sitting here thinking about the anti-spam text and still forget to write it! Grrrr! (almost did it a second time)
You may want to consider an audio option also?
What kind of spam do you get then? I bet it’s sooooo annoying
we don’t mind 
welcome back old friend.
grilled spam is best
I actually missed the captcha text.
You might want to check out some wordpress anti-spam plugins such as this one http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-spamfree/
I got a lot of spam as well on my blog, I switched my comment system to IntenseDebate and started getting a lot less spam after that.
Incidentally, how many spam comments did you receive for this post?!
Msg from Abeo: Have received a grand total of 0 spam since I put CAPTCHA back on
Thats not a problem!
Must spank the spam!
Great to see the anti-spam back on. Now I can tell you the one about the Nigerian general with the enlarged
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity from DamntheSpam.co.uk
Want to see annoying spam emails and blog posts obliterated forever from the internet? Simply order a Damn the Spam filter, and your spam will be removed, burned, and sent to the hell from whence it came. If you are equally annoyed by spam emails about spam filters, simply visit DamnDamntheSpam.co.uk for an anti-DamntheSpam filter…
(I wonder if this will get through?
Anyway, no worries about the Spam CAPTCHA. Jess xxx)
- heh! I wish there were such a website – Phillis
Should’ve used reCAPTCHA, a lot harder for spam bots to get through.
Wow, looked at the reCAPTCHA and think the idea is absolutely brilliant! Digitalize old books and fight spam at the same time. Thanks for linking to it.
http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html
Chris
Actually DamntheSpam gives me an idea. Looking at most spams, they are seemingly sent by gullible individuals who have been persuaded by someone else that this will make them money (it’s the someone else who makes the money). Rather like the “greater fool” idea in pyramid marketing. In other words, most of the actual originators are stupid and gullible – you can see where they often fail to configure the software properly.
What else do we know about stupid and gullible people? They are easily taken in by ideas that have no basis in reality, such as the idea that someone can actually curse them and bring them bad luck. If it is possible to somehow get the idea of a curse back up the chain – make some of them truly believe that setting up spam will cause certain and imaginatively detailed harm…?
Oooooh Spam Bot! How I have missed thee
No problem with the CAPTCHA, I do love a bit of reCAPTCHA though.
Although, the audio files of these captchas are quite amusing. “G for Grandmother, M for Monkey” That said, the captcha text seems to be the same, with a different design every time. Unless it’s just me.
Or maybe not. Perhaps the captcha gods heard my call, either that or it changes with every comment. I’d like to believe it was the former.