com_connect - form and contact mailer

phiw13 · 2020-01-31 07:30:29

jrmartin wrote #321439:

Hmmmm, when I submit through the form it returns “We do not accept spam, thank you! “ on firefox.

That is weird. Are you sure you have the latest version? See Colaks post with the source.

You can try my form here. If it is not to much to ask, make sure to identify your self :-)

jrmartin · 2020-01-31 15:57:54

colak wrote #321440:

Hi james, try this one.

# Name: pap_comconnect v0.1.2 (compressed)...

I think that was the one I was using. Here’s the page:

https://www.sardinia-guide.com/about/7/about-paola-loi

It stopped working in Firefox, returning “We do not accept spam, thank you!” near the end of last year, as far as I could figure. Also, when I try to switch to php version 7.3 everything is fine except this page, where it returns errors.

james

Pat64 · 2020-01-31 17:52:26

jrmartin wrote #321452:

I think that was the one I was using. Here’s the page:

https://www.sardinia-guide.com/about/7/about-paola-loi

It stopped working in Firefox, returning “We do not accept spam, thank you!” near the end of last year, as far as I could figure. Also, when I try to switch to php version 7.3 everything is fine except this page, where it returns errors.

james

Not for me. It works and I got this final message:

Thank you, your message has been sent.

(Tested with FF PC latest)

jrmartin · 2020-01-31 18:03:06

Ah, thanks Patrick. This gave me a clue that I hadn’t considered. I had been trying to send a message by using autofill to enter the names and email address. When I typed everything in by hand, it sent just fine.

jakob · 2020-01-31 20:27:35

jrmartin wrote #321454:

I had been trying to send a message by using autofill to enter the names and email address. When I typed everything in by hand, it sent just fine.

That will be the reason. pap_comconnect works according to the honeypot principle, meaning it provides a few fields with typical names – phone and mail – that are hidden to human visitors but a bot is likely to fill out. If they’re filled out, the form doesn’t submit.

Your browser’s autofill was filling out one or both of them for you, and you were getting rejected as a result.

jrmartin · 2020-01-31 20:32:10

Yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. Thanks.

I wonder if I should put something on the page about not autofilling.

james

Bloke · 2020-01-31 20:42:26

While pap_comconnect works, it is a little annoying: if you have explicitly defined ‘phone’ and/or ‘mail’ fields in your form, you’ll probably get bounced.

I was thinking it might be better to use less-likely-to-be-used-for-real field names, or make the names configurable by exposing the plugin as a public tag. Default to a couple of form-ish sounding field names (so it’s not obvious that they’re fake) but allow you to change them if you need.

Pat64 · 2020-02-01 05:12:11

Exact Stef!

That’s the reason why I changed these 2 fields by: date (date type) and place (text type) into the plugin.

colak · 2020-02-01 06:33:12

pap_comconnect reduced the spam i receive dramatically. Also i am kind of glad that the spam that comes through is sent by actual people, who I imagine they are trying to make ends meet. As such, by separating the boys from the bots, we are creating paid jobs.

If you think that the pap_comconnect fields could be configurable, I would still keep them invisible but have them named by admins in the plugin’s preferences. This is the first time the issue has come up. The other way is to have a help file stating the names of the fields and warning users to to use them in their actual fields.

> Edit. I added the names of the fields pap_comconnect uses in the plugin’s help with a warning not to use them.

# Name: pap_comconnect v0.1.2 (compressed)
# Type: Public plugin
# Prevent Spam through com_connect
# Author: tranquillo and Stef
# URL: https://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?pid=312784#p312784
# Recommended load order: 5

# .....................................................................
# This is a plugin for Textpattern CMS - http://textpattern.com/
# To install: textpattern > admin > plugins
# Paste the following text into the 'Install plugin' box:
# .....................................................................

H4sIAAAAAAAAA4VUwW7bOBA920D/YaoWlQNkpUhx4kRxvFj0tLcC6Z4FWhpZRCmSS46cGm3+
fUlKrm3YuwsYMDUzfHzvDYesyLLihy3mRSRZh9GTLTK31kyXleoqJSVW5KP3RcR6apUJJY9F
RIbJv3suhAIma3ghbELqZl9Y9oaHnVkRtUTaFmnaKNN3CeF30owIjUy4SrccX0lpXiW61b9r
Xj/fZvniYf5BD/8eZFFEWzSWK+m/7oroJsmSPBzo4Gu0leGaxvRtXkRfDG5RErxo1gG1RvWb
Fpyk8kiTE1qpOohezJ0kgxtuHauyYkKsWfVtFp8aUTr+XXwdHyJJiFw9vZv+/2bbrztOp9vH
mAd4N216WXkNcOHU2RX88DWTjw1HUcMzxMuab8HSTuBztOWWr7ngtCug5XWNMlrFScOl7mkW
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gQYAAA==

Last edited by colak (2020-02-01 06:56:38)

phiw13 · 2020-02-01 07:11:43

jrmartin wrote #321454:

I had been trying to send a message by using autofill to enter the names and email address.

Interesting. When I use autofill (with Safari), i do not have that issue; can’t test with Firefox though as it does not “know” me and it does not read the macOS data (my ‘me’ card in particular).

colak wrote #321461:

[…] As such, by separating the boys from the bots, we are creating paid jobs.

hmmm that is definitely not an argument i would make in favour of the plugin. Ever seen the inside one of those manual “bot” factories? It is about as bad as the English 19th century textile factories

If you think that the pap_comconnect fields could be configurable, I would still keep them invisible but have them named by admins in the preferences.

Yes.

The other way is to have a help file stating the names of the fields and warning users to to use them in their actual fields.

That is already a step forward. (I actually always use tel and email by habit I think, or maybe it is a Japanese tradition ?).

jakob · 2020-02-01 07:45:49

I guess the true test is what the bots fill out. It’d be interesting to know what fields are most effective.

I doubt that bots are terribly specific in their market-focus – except maybe in non-latin languages – so cultural convention may play only a secondary role.

What could be a good idea, though, is to set autocomplete="off" for those fields to prevent the browser filling them out: autocomplete docs and support for autocomplete on / off is at least reasonable.

colak · 2020-06-02 07:48:09

I have a long form which for some reason refuses to post, every time returning errors that such and such fields are required, in spite of the fact that I fill them all.

The form is a survey we are conducting and includes 35 fields, consisting of text, select, check boxes and a textarea. Although the form requires about 5 to 6 minutes to complete, I’ve set the expiration to 1200 secs in order to allow for coffee breaks:)

I am using the latest stable 4.6 release on the latest txp stable version. At the moment the form is in an draft article, but I also tested it using a future date without any success.

The contact form on our site appears to be working just fine. Did I hit a limitation on the allowed number of fields?

Bloke · 2020-06-02 07:56:20

Might be the payload size. Can you please share your contact form with me? PM is fine. I’ll see if I can get to the bottom of it.

Last edited by Bloke (2020-06-02 07:56:58)

colak · 2020-06-02 08:34:43

Solved. We are allowed no spaces for the name attribute. Once I deleted those. All works as expected.

Stef, although I did send you an email, you can ignore it, unless of course you wish to snoop in:)

Bloke · 2020-06-02 08:58:33

Ah yes. That’s correct. I wonder if we should dumb down the name field automatically? I think we do that if you just use label, can’t remember offhand.

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#196 2020-01-31 07:30:29

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

jrmartin wrote #321439:

#197 2020-01-31 15:57:54

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

colak wrote #321440:

#198 2020-01-31 17:52:26

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

jrmartin wrote #321452:

#199 2020-01-31 18:03:06

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#200 2020-01-31 20:27:35

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

jrmartin wrote #321454:

#201 2020-01-31 20:32:10

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#202 2020-01-31 20:42:26

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#203 2020-02-01 05:12:11

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#204 2020-02-01 06:33:12

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#205 2020-02-01 07:11:43

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

jrmartin wrote #321454:

colak wrote #321461:

#206 2020-02-01 07:45:49

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#207 2020-06-02 07:48:09

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#208 2020-06-02 07:56:20

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#209 2020-06-02 08:34:43

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

#210 2020-06-02 08:58:33

Re: com_connect - form and contact mailer

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