Spam-free contact form?

Discussion in 'Programming' started by wholesalechecklist, Mar 20, 2007.

  1. #1
    Where can I find one, or how can I customize one to make it spam free? I would rather have one that does not require a link back - it looks really unprofessional. Thanks
     
    wholesalechecklist, Mar 20, 2007 IP
  2. ednit

    ednit Peon

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    #2
    Getting one custom made will probably be better than using an open source, widely offered one.

    To make it "spam free" you just have to be sure that all the inputs are validated for whatever information you want included/excluded properly before allowing the form to process the info.

    You can probably hire someone here to write you one. . . but you'd have to be sure they knew what you were doing. I could write you one using perl/cgi - but I wouldn't be the cheapest here by far, likely.
     
    ednit, Mar 20, 2007 IP
  3. wholesalechecklist

    wholesalechecklist Peon

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    #3
    Yeah i think i am going to hire someone to customize one.

    BTW, i was thinking....what if you put a meta tag on your contact page to not allow spiders and bots. would that stop the spam?
     
    wholesalechecklist, Mar 21, 2007 IP
  4. RRWH

    RRWH Active Member

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    #4
    I have a contact form that has proven to be very good over the last couple of years - the free version requires a linkback - contact me we can work something out for you.
     
    RRWH, Mar 21, 2007 IP
  5. ednit

    ednit Peon

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    #5
    I'm thinking no - I don't know too much about how spammers come across cotact form scripts, but I doubt if they use robots to search for them that they will follow the robots rules in your meta tags or in the robots.txt file. This is just a guess, though.
     
    ednit, Mar 21, 2007 IP
  6. VishalVasani

    VishalVasani Peon

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    #6
    Hello,

    If you are using wordpress them you can try out http://www.protectwebform.com/plugin_wordpress or you can try out other CAPTCHA tools to prevent spam....
     
    VishalVasani, Mar 25, 2007 IP
  7. clancey

    clancey Peon

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    #7
    It is impossible to create a "contact form" in which people cannot submit spam in the message. It is also questionable whether captcha belongs in a "contact form" because the point of the form is to get feedback as easily as possible.

    It is possible to prevent the form from being used to send spam to other people by:

    1 - never allow users to specifiy a recipient; and
    2 - make sure the user cannot inject headers into their email address; and
    3 - never include valid email addresses in the public portion of the script

    There are several threads which discuss preventing users from injecting headers into their email address, particularly BCC lines, and some sample "contact forms" and coding solutions:

    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=98568&highlight=bcc+injection+in+contact+form
    and
    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=210030&highlight=spam+free+contact+form

    No. That is impossible. Spiders and bots ignore such meta tags.
     
    clancey, Mar 25, 2007 IP
  8. OneWebAve

    OneWebAve Peon

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    #8
    Personally, I just ASCII obscure my email address and put it in an href with a mailto:

    Try this page to convert your text:

    http://www.discoveryvip.com/asc.php

    Just enter your email address, the paste in the funky looking code. This has worked for me for many years.
     
    OneWebAve, Mar 25, 2007 IP
  9. ccoonen

    ccoonen Well-Known Member

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    #9
    here's an idea i just thought of... why not have a fully built on-the-fly form made via JavaScript... then encode or make it hard to emulate the JavaScript functionality :)
     
    ccoonen, Mar 25, 2007 IP
  10. wholesalechecklist

    wholesalechecklist Peon

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    #10
    Its not that I did not want spam messages sent to me, but its more of that I did not want spiders using my script and sending to me/other people.
     
    wholesalechecklist, Apr 12, 2007 IP
  11. wholesalechecklist

    wholesalechecklist Peon

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    #11
    Is there a way to verify that the email address the user provides is valid?
     
    wholesalechecklist, May 31, 2007 IP