questions, to begin with

[Handoko]

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...

That should be rotate 180 degree.

[Kays]

You got it all wrong: nine upside down is ǝuı̣u

[dbannon]

And it is not possible. The forum software only offers

1) the scrambled letter picture
2) Predefined questions (text only) with predefined answers

--------
There may be plug-ins, but then it can be a pain to update the forum software, if the plug-in is behind....

Yes, keeping the forum software up to date easily is important.

So, do we need to come up with a large number of questions ? As much as anything, we need to be ready for change. While I found the previously mentioned questions easy I am sure thats not always the case and thats unfair (and bad for FPC/Lazarus)..

I am uncomfortable requiring a level of Pascal Knowledge, do others agree it needs to be easy get in for beginners ? But not bots or spammers ?

Would we be better having a low barrier to entry but very quick action of spam / trolling ?  A bigger team, potential for mistakes ....

I guess other Forums must also be facing the same problem, its possible the Forum Software will also be adapting to this problem but will always be playing "catch up'.

Incidentally, I don't think its a good idea to post suggested question/answers here, google indexes this forum ....

Personally, I am very grateful for this Forum, its helped me a lot, entertained me a lot, and early on, at a time when I needed some help, not just technical. So, I am acutely interested in keeping it going, vigorous, open and easy.

Davo

[rvk]

I am uncomfortable requiring a level of Pascal Knowledge, do others agree it needs to be easy get in for beginners ? But not bots or spammers ?

Aiaiai, then how is OpenAI going to learn and improve its Pascal skills? 

(Although OpenAI's knowledge of Pascal is already much greater than many beginners here  )

[KodeZwerg]

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...

That should be rotate 180 degree.

(!!)

You got it all wrong: nine upside down is ǝuı̣u

nine
uı̣uǝ

( still not looking correct  )

[Joanna]

Do captchas not stop spammers? Or are they paying people to get past the captcha?
It seems like a tricky situation trying to stop spammers from making accounts. I’ve seen something on social media where people had to say in text why they wanted to join a Facebook group and then a moderator would review it before they could be allowed in. I’m not sure how good this solution is because people who are up to no good are often very adept at saying what moderators want to hear.

A personal interview in real time is a good way to determine what people are up to but it’s very time consuming. I can offer help with this but I’m not always around.

I don’t know much about forum software but maybe if people can’t pass a beginner pascal test they should quarantined to posting In only one part of forum for beginners on probation.

It really shouldn’t be necessary to do all this. I really dislike these spammers who make doing simple things like having a forum so difficult and want to thank the people who run this forum again  for all the work they do.