Admins: Please change the sites' "random question"

[MikeOh <3 KayKay]

Hi,

First, apologies for what may seem like a rant... TL;DR - red

I'm not sure if this was mentioned somewhere else on your site (I couldn't find it), but I would strongly suggest that the site change the currently set "random question".

This is coming from someone who spent a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out the answer AND as it is required to reset my password, I was almost forced to create a new account just to post (I eventually figured it out). Also of note, this seems to be the only question that you have the option of answering (i.e. it doesn't cycle like regular "secret questions" you find on banking sites or even basic CAPTCHA functionality). Effectively, you could be losing new members/old members or getting a superfluous amount of duplicate/triplicate/etc. accounts because of this.

The problem with this question is that it's ambiguous AND you don't accommodate the color blind!!

For those curious, the question is "What was the colour of the $2 bill?".

My first thought was brown. No dice. So, I Google it exactly as is - and the first hit is: http://www.cdnpapermoney.com/English/BoC/1986_2.htm

"The 1986 $2 bill is dark terra cotta in colour with pastel colours in a rainbow pattern"

I tried "terra cotta", "dark terra cotta", "dark terra cotta in colour with pastel colours in a rainbow pattern"... no dice! So I google "terra cotta" and I come across this page after a few drill downs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_...isambiguation)

On that page is "Terra cotta (color), a reddish-brown colour" - so I try "reddish-brown" no dice.. then I try "red" ... BOOM there you go.

Holy cow! It shouldn't be that difficult

Thanks! Just a suggestion...

[GregS]

Ever since that was implemented it eliminated the 10-20 spam accounts that were signing up per day and increased the number of legitimate accounts.
I used to waste a lot of time going through accounts to delete the spammers. Not any more.

If you can come up with a better question that only a Canadian would be able to answer, please feel free to share.

[WellThatsLovely]

Hahahhahaha I went through the same thing!! (FFS!! It's the $50 that's red!!! lol)

[MikeOh <3 KayKay]

Originally Posted by GregS

If you can come up with a better question that only a Canadian would be able to answer, please feel free to share.

Why is there a restriction on a question that "only a Canadian would be able to answer"? With the power of Google, anyone from any country with a little effort could find the answer.

The reason why you think forcing users to answer a question works so well is not, in my opinion, because of its presence on its own but rather due to the fact that with Google the first few "correct" answers were actually marked as being incorrect. Don't get me wrong, having something like this (or something like CAPTCHA) will stop some spam bots, but it won't stop real people who are trying to register to spam. You stopped them by making the answer ambiguous.

With that said, there are a few things I can suggest:

1. if you want to keep the question, have a set of other "Canadian" questions and cycle through them at random. You could go as far as keeping the same question repeated for the same browser session and rotate the question on new sessions (think cookies)

2. if you want to keep the question, add some OR operators to the answer (i.e. accept multiple correct answers). This approach in some ways "weakens" the security aspect of the question though

3. get some stats on how many fail the question + the answer they put in - take that number (total) and discard the blank answers (assume those are bots or frustrated people like me). Group the rest of the answers and see if there is a common pattern. If 90% of the rest put brown, change the answer

4. Here are some less ambiguous "Canadian" questions - but like I said, you'll probably see more "issues" with sign-ups/etc. not because of the questions themselves but rather due to the answer not being ambiguous
- What animal is on the nickel
- What is the capital of Canada
(even some Canadians have trouble answering this one :P ... no the answer is NOT Toronto :P :P)
- What is the first two words of our national anthem
- What image is shown on our national flag
- etc...

In any case, it's your site and now that I have my account back it doesn't matter so much. Just thought I'd point out the issue at hand.

Thanks,
Mike-

[GregS]

I have updated it. Let's see how many robot spam people from Romania, India, China, Russia, Belarus, Vietnam and other countries get it.

[TKG26]

RED=2$


Have you looked into BAD BEHAVIOR? I use this mod on my forum. IT reduced my 20-30 a day spam registrations down to 0..


Here is a link for your forum. I use it on SMF based forum

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233628

[TKG26]

THIS! I have had a DOZEN people contact me saying they cannot get the answer to work... Is the T upper or lower case? LMFAO So just stopped using the question...

- What is the capital of Canada
(even some Canadians have trouble answering this one :P ... no the answer is NOT Toronto :P :P)

[Mark & Lynda]

Originally Posted by TKG26

THIS! I have had a DOZEN people contact me saying they cannot get the answer to work... Is the T upper or lower case? LMFAO So just stopped using the question...

If they cannot answer that question, they probably don't deserve to be a member of the board. lol