Several users needed for a small test (no special skill needed)

[Duke]

A week ago, I successfully blocked the spambot registrations by changing the registration question.
But we also saw no new human member register during that week. So my concern is that the question might be too hard for the average user.

What I want you to do is
1. Lean back and remember the situation when you arrived here.
a) you followed the forums for days/months/years, then wanted to write your first reply to a post
b) you ignored the forums, but then wanted to post a support request
c) ... ?
...so you had to register.

2. Figure out the answer to our registration question. No need to actually register a fake account or such.

3. Post your success below, saying something like "Found it. But it took me 15 minutes." or "No clue. Gave up after 1 hour". Do NOT post the answer here !

Got the picture ? Ok, here we go. The registration question is:

What is the name of Duke's latest girfriend ?

Have fun

[Wolls]

Okay.. all in less then 2 mins   

[DarkRain]

It took me... less than one second, the answer stood out enough that I would remember it immediately

[Eegxeta]

Well I'm going to answer this like any new user would. "Who the heck is Duke?" or "How am I supposed to know what his girlfriend's name is?".

Seriously I haven't the foggiest idea of an idea of what the answer could be.

I would change the question to something related to the game or maybe add a mail you get a month or so into the game that gives you the answer.

[Unisol]

Several minutes.

There aren't many mentions of girlfriends on game-related forum, you know.

[Mattn]

We even have a question on facebook about this

[Grug]

I was stumped for a while and then thought, it must be mentioned somewhere on the forums... and a search produced a result.

However, a new user might not think to search the forums and someone who's first language isn't English might not understand the results returned, or might not know what term to search on... and then there are typo issues etc.

I'm not sure it's such a brilliant idea. I'm with Eegxeta and say it should probably relate to the game, but the problem I see with that is what if someone is having problems starting the game and is creating an account to get some help. They likely would not know the answer to many possible game related questions.

[Soandso]

Instant.

[Eegxeta]

Duke you should design the website to snare spambots into a trap that makes them try to calculate the last number of pi. If you find something that the spam bots do automatically then use that as the snare and give a work around that is not too complex, but has a factor the spam bots can't account for. Like if they automatically activate the account as soon as they can then make it so you have to wait a day before activating the account otherwise it sends them to a page that make them try and calculate the last number of pi to continue. That would annoy the heck out of the people running the spam bot and they would move on because it is too much work. Or you could spam the spam bots make them download tons of junk data or well you get the idea. Make a trap that spam bots won't see.

[TallTroll]

>> but has a factor the spam bots can't account for

Sadly, no such factor exists. Spambots are cleverer than you think, and if it comes to it, there's always Mturk

[EnemyKnown]

Took me quite some time.
And if someone in this thread hadn't stated it can be found on this forum I'd never have figured it out.
(This is a gaming forum-->Duke must be "Duke Nukem"....)

Have you thought about adding a textfile to the game download that includes the answer to the security question?- I'd think spambots wouldn't want to download almost a gig of data?

[Visitor]

Gave up quickly because of trying to get into a mindframe of a player who just arrived here to talk a bit about the game. The answer can be found, but - explanation as follows:

The problem with the question is that many new users, especially those who just discovered the game and have little of knowledge (or care) for people surrounding it's development and community quite probably won't feel like being arsed into checking out which/what Duke is meant and then seek answer.

Some may have vague idea about development team, and be grateful to them for their work, but their former knowledge, experienced etc may make it hard for them to actually understand the question properly (I also, for a couple of seconds, just thought of and tried to recall character of Duke Nukem series).

Majority of the users, while they develop contacts over time, start simply as people who want to share something/ask/talk about the game they've started playing. Thus, I'd say that the question is quite unfitting, even if effective for stopping bots as it's not tailored for them and their knowledge. Ideally, it should be something most players of the game will get to know without need for searching around for the answer.

[Grug]

Have you thought about adding a textfile to the game download that includes the answer to the security question?- I'd think spambots wouldn't want to download almost a gig of data?

That's an interesting point. Maybe have a message on the loading/main menu screen, somewhere that doesn't require searching, but small so as to be unobtrusive.

That would make it harder to change if necessary as not everyone would have the same version of the game, etc

[Flying Steel]

The registration question is:

What is the name of Duke's latest girfriend ?

I have no fucking clue. What am I missing here?

Have any new forum registrants been able to get passed this besides your girlfriend?

[Flying Steel]

Okay the above was worded too harshly and I understand what an endless mess spam creates on forums. So I apologize.

I am just concerned that such an unorthodox screening mechanism as this will block many would-have-been future contributors to this game.