Guestbook troubles

[PhunkyMonkey]

I used to have a guestbook set up on my site, using the FQ guestbook files. I started getting fake spam entries (along the lines of ~ you've got a great site, here's another great site...). I started get them more frequently & ended up removing the guestbook form and just entering the information myself.

When I removed the guestbook form, I still had the files in place & I recieved more spam before I deleted the files. I was pretty sure it was some sort of bot, but this made me certain of it.

So ~ is there anyway to get around this?
If I change the name of the files (from "guestbook"), will that make a difference? Or are they finding it a different way?

[sheila]

Changing the name of the script may help to some extent, or for a while. However, if you have a link to the script on your site (which you must have, if you want site visitors to use it and submit information to you), then the spammers can find it eventually. Whether they will or not...who knows...but there is that chance.

The most common way at this time to prevent spammers from abusing this type of script, is with a Captcha type of technique, where an image is displayed with characters that the end user must view and type into the form in order for their submission to go through.

The FutureQuest guestbook script doesn't have provisions for a Captcha type of element. I haven't personally played around with implementing such a thing on any of my own sites, and I don't know how easy it would be to add to guestbook script.