Blocking Spam With Javascript

[Forum-Engine]

Hi all,

Coder Will Bontrager (willmaster.com) shared this spam busting tip with me, and I thought you might find it useful.

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One of the easiest form spam reduction techniques is to put a URL in the form's action tag that goes to a regular page instead of the form handling script - a real page, not a 404, so spammers don't get notified to manually investigate your code.

Somewhere below the form, JavaScript assigns the correct URL to the action tag.

The form tag needs an id value for the JavaScript to use. Example:

<form id="handle" action="/index.html"> ... </form>

<script type="text/javascript"> document.getElementById("handle").action = "/script.php"; </script>

Spammers' robots seldom parse JavaScript, so their automated submission never reaches the form handler specified by the JavaScript.

Instead, their spam goes poof at the URL hard coded into the form tag.

[stevemack]

thanks for sharing and this is another way of blocking spammers manually.

[jogan]

I could not agree more with you mate. Although there are many software and promises from websites to reduce spams, the best way I often feel is to do it ourselves. I have found out that JavaScript method which is putting the URL in the action tag of the form saves time and money to a great extent.